Past and Present Intertwine
by Amaniachwen
Summary: Kagome returns and attends high school with Inu-Yasha. Old feelings of friendship begin to reach new levels, but are they levels of friendship or of something more? IY/Kag all the way! Ch 8 is up! :3
1. Meeting

Disclaimer: I don't own Inu-Yasha. This fanfic is my idea, though. O.o Is that good enough? Peep?  
  
  
  
Past and Present Intertwine  
  
Chapter One- Meeting  
  
"When did you move in?" the woman asked as she entered the kitchen and set the stack of magazines she was carrying on the table. Her face was pink where she had had the telephone pressed between her shoulder and head, but now she held the phone in her hand, using her free hand to wag a finger at her squawking daughter. "Quiet now, Kaka. Mama is on the phone."  
  
The little girl scrunched her nose and grinned up at her mother. "Ya! Ya! Ya!" she cried, jumping vigorously in her bouncer that blocked the doorway on the opposite side of the kitchen.  
  
The woman smiled and made a silly face that made the child giggle. She then turned her attention back to the person on the other end of the phone. "Why don't you come over here, so we can chat? I'm making tea." She was quiet for a few moments as she listened to the other explain that she didn't want to be a bother. "It's no trouble at all! Besides, my little girl refuses to leave her bouncer -she's so stubborn-, so you simply must come visit us." The two women laughed and hung up.  
  
"Kaka, we're going to have visitors," the woman told her daughter. "Oh, Kagome! Your hair." She crossed the room to the doorway and gently pulled the soft, dark strands away from her daughter's face.  
  
"We're going to have company, so make a good impression. If you do, you'll have a play-mate!" she said, rubbing her thumb over Kagome's cheek in an attempt to remove crusty bits of her lunch that had missed their destination in the tummy due to a certain messy baby who licked her hand and smeared it across her face during the process of chewing her food.  
  
The woman slipped off the child's dirty bib, and remembering her earlier statement, she set a pot of water on the stove to boil for tea.  
  
*****  
  
The doorbell rang a few minutes later, and the woman hurried to the door after a quick glance in the mirror for any rebellious hairs of smudged lipstick. She then opened the door, presenting the woman on the other side with a large, beaming smile. The smile was returned.  
  
"Hello! I'm Hiburo Higurashi," she greeted with a bow.  
  
The guest bowed, as well, and replied, "I'm Ayako Tsujimoto. It's so nice to meet you!"  
  
The two women chatted at the front door, and a curious Kagome gripped the edge of the doorway and pulled herself around to face them. She leaned forward, trying to see what all the commotion was about. Her hair fell over her eyes, and she bounced and yelled to regain her mother's attention.  
  
"This is my little girl Kagome," Mrs. Higurashi announced, kneeling down and pushing the hair from the baby's eyes again. "She's about eighteen months now."  
  
"She is simply adorable," the other woman cooed. She looked over her shoulder and said, "Look, Inu-Yasha! A new friend to play with!"  
  
A young boy peeked though his mother's legs at Kagome. "She's a girl," he said.  
  
"Yes," his mother confirmed.  
  
"Can I fight with her?" he asked.  
  
Mrs. Higurashi's mouth fell open, and moved closer to Kagome, who was trying to get a better look at the boy.  
  
"Inu-Yasha dear, it's not good to fight," Mrs. Tsujimoto explained in a stern voice. Turning to her hostess, she said, "I'm sorry. His father has been wrestling with him, and he thinks it's really fun, so he wants to fight with others for fun. He doesn't fight someone if I tell him not to. It's all just a phase he's going through right now." Her last statement was said with an air of uncertainty, which caused Mrs. Higurashi's understanding smile to falter.  
  
The boiling water was steaming, so Mrs. Higurashi pushed pass Kagome to turn the stove off. Mrs. Tsujimoto followed, and the two began talking again.  
  
Without his mother in the way, Kagome could now look at the boy. She ignored his chubby arms and legs, red shirt, navy shorts, and bare feet because she was too occupied with staring at his pudgy cheeks, amber eyes, and shaggy, white hair that fell to the tips of his big ears. She continued to peer at him with her finger dangling from her lip.  
  
After a moment, Kagome unhooked her finger and pointed it at Inu- Yasha. "Pay-may!" she cried, bouncing up and down.  
  
"Yeah, we can be pway-mates," Inu-Yasha agreed, "if you aren't sked (little IY word for scared) of the big feromous (IY for ferocious) dog!" He crouched and lifted his hands in front of him and curled them into claws. "Bark! Bark! Bark!"  
  
Her eyes widened, and she squealed with laughter.  
  
"It's not funny!" Inu-Yasha declared.  
  
Kagome lifted her hands above her head and her body shook from laughing.  
  
Inu-Yasha growled and stood on his tiptoes, precariously leanng against the unstable bouncer that was lurching back and forth from Kagome's giggles. "I'm scary! Bark! Bark!" he barked. Literally, too.  
  
"Sit, boy!" Kagome cried and brought her raised hands down upon his head. Inu-Yasha lost his balance and fell flat on his face.  
  
Mrs. Tsujimoto choked on the tea she was sipping, and Mrs. Higurashi said, "I don't think we'll have to worry about Inu-Yasha hurting Kagome.."  
  
*****  
  
The two mothers had set up a play-date for the following day. Mrs. Higurashi had offered to help the Tsujimoto's move in, and they graciously accepted with the suggestion that Inu-Yasha and Kagome could play together while the work was being done.  
  
So they did.kind of. The two children were sitting in the backyard, peering through the screen door at the three adults (Mr. and Mrs. Tsujimoto and Mrs. Higurashi) lugging boxes into the house from the garage.  
  
"That's my daddy," Inu-Yasha said, indicating. "And that's my mommy."  
  
"Mama." K pointed at her own mother.  
  
"I'm three years old, and my name is Inu-Yasha," Inu-Yasha told her, directing his finger to himself. "Can you even say that?"  
  
Kagome smiled and gave him her impish smile. "Inash!"  
  
"No!" Inu-Yasha said. "No! I am Inu-Yasha."  
  
"Inash!"  
  
"Inu-Yasha!"  
  
"Inash!"  
  
"Inu-Yasha!"  
  
"Sit!" she squawked and pushed the boy into the grass.  
  
"You dumb girl!" he shouted, standing up and patting the dirt off his rear. "If you don't stop hitting me, I won't be your friend!"  
  
Kagome's smile tripped, fell over itself, and turned into a frown. "Kaka sorry," she uttered through trembling lips.  
  
Avoiding her pitiful expression, Inu-Yasha locked his eyes onto the leaves of only tree in his backyard. "No more 'sitting.' I'm not weally a dog."  
  
After processing this bit of information, Kagome smiled again and said, "I'm Kaka."  
  
"No, you're not," Inu-Yasha said matter-of-factly. "You're Kagome."  
  
She nodded. "Kaka," she repeated.  
  
Inu-Yasha's gaze returned to her chubby face. "You don't say anybody's name wight, huh?"  
  
"Ya! Ya!"  
  
Inu-Yasha threw his hands up in exasperation like he'd seen his mother do so many times. "You make me cwazy!"  
  
Kagome smiled at him. She thought this boy was so fun!  
  
"When I was your age," Inu-Yasha began, imitating his father, "I could say every word perfectly." We can only hope that this statement is a lie, or we have reason to believe that Inu-Yasha's mental-accuity is regressing.  
  
"Inash silly," Kagome said.  
  
Imitating his mother's sigh, he corrected, "Inu-Yasha."  
  
"Inash!" "."  
  
  
  
Author's Note: First of all, I want all of you to know how hard I worked getting this fanfic onto fanfiction.net! I am stupid when it comes to computers, so I had no idea what any of the html stuff was, and I was like, "Woah! Overload!" and my brain kicked my head open and it jumped out and fell to the floor and stopped, dropped, and rolled right there, and I was like "Huh?" I quickly stuffed the sucker back in my head after wiping off some of the carpet lint and dog hair. Anyway, I got help from a friend, and he helped me muchas bunches ((not actual Spanish), but my other computer hates me and decided to crap on my foot and not put the little html thing on the end of the file. Then my printer choked on its butt cheek and didn't print my fanfic out, so I had to write it all down. Then I come to this computer and type up my fanfic all over again. Now I'm writing this author's note. I can only hope that I haven't just typed this thing for nothing because I'm tired and my calves hurt. Mooo. Anyway, I'll stop whining now and talk about what I'm going to do with this fanfic. It starts out with Inu-Yasha and Kagome meeting as children. They are neighbors for a few years. Kagome moves away. Inu-Yasha goes on. Kagome moves back, and it goes from there. It's alternate reality, and Inu-Yasha is a human, but he has his white hair because I like it, and it's actually important for something I was to type about in this story. Heehee. Foreshadowing! *slaps self on the hand* I better stop writing this, or it might become longer than my fanfic! Wouldn't that suck?! I'll put up chapter two, which will be SOO much more interesting, if I get three reviews. I don't want to be greedy, since this is my first fanfic, and no one knows me. O.o ~Amaniachwen  
  
P.S. I know Kagome doesn't actually say, "sit, boy," but I thought it would be cute for her to say it then. Most of the other characters, if not all of them, will be in this fanfic, as well, but you never know when one will pop up. *snicker* 


	2. You Always Were a Rebel

Disclaimer: I don't own Inu-Yasha.yet. Ah-ha-ha-ha! O.o  
  
  
  
Past and Present Intertwine  
  
Chapter Two- You Always Were a Rebel  
  
  
  
Kagome sang a song to herself within the peaceful boundaries of her backyard. Her black hair was pulled up to a small ponytail on the top of her head, and it flopped around whenever she turned to look up at the busy birds hopping about on the grass. She brushed her doll's hair, but it was more like she was wrenching the brush through the fake, tangled bunch.  
  
Her quiet song was suddenly interrupted.  
  
"Nonononononononononono!!!" A door slammed, causing the birds to fly away.  
  
Kagome's head shot up at the unexpected bursts of noise.  
  
Inu-Yasha dove behind a bush, rolled into Kagome's yard, then sprang to his feet and scampered beneath her porch.  
  
"Hi hi, Inash!" Kagome cried.  
  
"Sh!" Inu-Yasha hissed.  
  
Her eyes widened, and she swiveled her head around. "Where sh, Inash?"  
  
Inu-Yasha groaned and told her, "Not fish! I mean be quiet!"  
  
"Kaka kaiyit," she promised. She climbed to her feet, completely forgetting about grooming her doll, and waddled to the porch. She squatted down and peered at her friend.  
  
"Why hide?" she asked.  
  
Inu-Yasha beckoned for her to join him, so she crawled under the porch.  
  
"My mom," he said, "wants to cut my hair."  
  
Kagome was silent for a moment. "Why hide?" she asked again.  
  
Sighing, the boy tugged at his messy hair that was now down to his jaw. "I don't want her to cut my hair."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"I like it like this."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"I just do."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Stop it!"  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because you are dumb!"  
  
"Why?"  
  
"You just are! Now shut up before you get me caught!"  
  
Laughing, Kagome bent forward, and her ponytail flicked across the rebellious boy's face. He swiped the hair away and pouted. Why was he never taken seriously?  
  
When Kagome's giggles had subsided, she yawned and rubbed at her eyes. She blinked sleepily and looked at Inu-Yasha, who was now lying down and flicking at bits of dirt. She flopped across his back, and a small 'oof' escaped his lips. He looked over his shoulder, preparing to snap at her to get off, but she was asleep.  
  
"Dumby," Inu-Yasha grumbled, but he didn't move away. Instead, he laid his head in his arms and closed his eyes.  
  
*****  
  
His mother's frantic shrieks woke him up, and Inu-Yasha scrambled to his knees, accidentally throwing Kagome off him. Due to the small bump on her head she had just received and being awoken so rudely, she wailed and burst into tears.  
  
"Kagome?!" Mrs. Higurashi shouted when she heard her daughter's cries.  
  
Inu-Yasha gulped and took notice that the sun was setting. They must have been asleep under the porch for a long time, and neither of their parents knew where they were. Battling with his conscience, Inu-Yasha couldn't decide whether to leave his hiding place or stay.  
  
The decision was made for him.  
  
"Inu-Yasha Tsujimoto! Get your behind out from under there right now!" his mother yelled.  
  
With an audible gulp, Inu-Yasha pulled a sobbing Kagome out with him.  
  
When she saw her daughter emerge, Mrs. Higurashi wrapped her up in her arms and soothingly rubbed her back to silence her cries.  
  
Mrs. Tsujimoto began berating Inu-Yasha, who hung his head.  
  
"I'm sorry," he mumbled. "We fell asleep. It was an accident."  
  
Mrs. Tsujimoto sighed, her anger ebbing away. She tousled his hair lovingly and said, "I still need to give you a haircut."  
  
Inu-Yasha's jerked his head up, and his next words were definite. "You won't cut my hair."  
  
"But, honey, it's too long. It's in your way," his mother explained.  
  
"I wike my hair the way it is," Inu-Yasha said stubbornly.  
  
Sighing yet again, Mrs. Tsujimoto turned to Mrs. Higurashi. "I suppose there's no reasoning with this boy. We're very sorry for worrying you."  
  
"I'm sowwy," Inu-Yasha apologized.  
  
"How can two little words pull at my heart-strings so much?" Mrs. Higurashi murmured with a smile. Then she answered, "You are forgiven Inu- Yasha, but I don't want to find my little girl missing again."  
  
Inu-Yasha nodded and glanced up at Kagome, whose sobs had deceased and been replaced with occasional hiccups. She was staring back at him, and her mouth turned upward in a big smile.  
  
"Inash rebel!" she said.  
  
Mrs. Higurashi and Mrs. Tsujimoto looked at each other with shocked expressions and chuckled. "I think she might be watching too much television," her mother said.  
  
Inu-Yasha grinned at Kagome, who in turn scrunched her nose at him.  
  
~~~~~ Present Day  
  
He swerved smoothly around a corner and raced down the street, his long hair whipping behind him. God, it felt so good to just cut loose and ride.  
  
He passed a group of people. Some of them ignored him, some turned their nose up at him, and some stared after him. It wasn't for them that he rode his motorcycle. His love of the machine was pure, and he felt that this was the only thing he could ever depend on.  
  
Coming to a screeching halt before his driveway, the boy pulled his helmet off. He didn't bother to smooth his wind-swept hair, and it cascaded to his waste in tangled lumps.  
  
He patted his bike tenderly. Then he noticed someone. A girl. She was sitting on the curb in front of the house next to his. She was staring at him.  
  
Inu-Yasha looked at her warily. It was almost creepy the way she was looking at him. It was if she knew him.  
  
The girl stood, still staring at him, and said with a smile, "You always were a rebel."  
  
  
  
Author's Note: Wow! I wonder who it is! Lol Thank you everyone who reviewed the first chapter! I was so afraid I wouldn't get any reviews, and when I saw that I had some, I started bouncing in my seat yelling, "Ya! Ya! Ya!" I was carried away by a sudden wave of motivation, and here I am all done with chapter two! I hope it was more interesting than my first chapter. I improvised this chapter, as well. ^.^'' I always have my later chapters planned out, but my introductions are generally whatever I can come up with when I sit down. Bah! O.o I hope Inu-Yasha and Kagome's childhood doesn't sound too corny. The first child is always spoiled and showered with affection and attention by his/her mother, so I'm trying to make it work. Oh yeah! Whenever Inu-Yasha and Kagome's words are spelled incorrectly, that's intentional. I just think it's cute, and it shows how young they are. The childhood bit of the chapter takes place approximately three months, six days, eleven hours, and 8.33 seconds after chapter one. That's just an estimate, though. Lol You'll learn about the present day in chapter three. Also, I REALLY appreciated the reviews I received! You guys have made my day! ^.^ 


	3. Shirts and Hair

Disclaimer: I don't own Inu-Yasha. If I did, I wouldn't be writing fanfics. Or would I?  
  
Past and Present Intertwine  
  
Chapter Three- Shirts and Hair  
  
  
  
Inu-Yasha's eyebrow slanted in an irritated manner. 'Woah, stalker!' came to mind, and he wasn't sure whether to be nervous, angry, or shocked, so he settled for indifferent.  
  
"Do I know you?" he asked, looking at her out of the corner of his eye.  
  
"You really don't recognize me?" the dark-haired girl asked. She didn't look offended, but her eyebrows rose slightly in surprise.  
  
"If I did, I wouldn't ask if I knew you," Inu-Yasha snapped, turning to her.  
  
"Hey! I'm being nice here! You don't have to be rude!" she told him.  
  
"I don't even know you!" Inu-Yasha shouted, wondering why he was getting so mad at someone he'd just met. Sort of.  
  
After taking a quick moment to calm herself, the girl tilted her head and gave him a small smile. "You really don't remember me, Inash?"  
  
Inu-Yasha's angry glare was swept away by a small gust of wind that rummaged through pieces of his still tousled hair and discarded them into his face, which now wore a surprised expression. Only one person had called him 'Inash,' but that was years ago. How many now? Three? Four? He didn't know. He probably didn't even care.  
  
"Kagome?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
~~~~~  
  
Kagome: Two years old. Inu-Yasha: Three years old.  
  
But who's counting?  
  
Kagome and Inu-Yasha were playing leapfrog in Kagome's backyard. Without warning, she pushed her hands against the ground, thus moving her crouching body up, so she could get a better look at an overhead bird that had just caught her attention. Inu-Yasha's feet stuttered when confronted with this more difficult hurdle. He gracelessly jumped and even more gracelessly knocked them both to the ground. Unfazed, they righted themselves, and the innocent Kagome gave her playmate an apologizing smile.  
  
"You have a stick in your hair, Inash," she informed him, reaching out to pluck the unwanted accessory from his ever-lengthening mane.  
  
For an inexplicable reason that made perfect sense in the mind of Inu- Yasha, the stick in his hair infuriated him. "Stupid stick!" he shouted. "Stupid stick getting caught in my stupid hair! Stupid stick and stupid hair! Stupid! Stupid!" He grabbed the stick from the girl's hand and snapped it into two smaller sticks before throwing them off into the grass.  
  
"Inash don't like hair?" Kagome asked curiously. Her friend's outburst didn't faze her. Perhaps she was becoming accustomed to his explosions since his emotions always traveled over minefield territory.  
  
"No!" Inu-Yasha confirmed without really confirming anything. "And don't call me 'Inash' "  
  
Ignoring his command, Kagome took his answer to mean he didn't like his hair, so she advised, "Cut it if you not like it, Inash."  
  
"No!" Inu-Yasha yelled. "I'm not cutting my hair!"  
  
"Why?"  
  
"I just don't want to."  
  
Kagome nodded as if she understood, but she was still confused. However, with a little patience, one's questions will always be answered in time. Sort of.  
  
"Girls aren't the only ones who can grow their hair long," Inu-Yasha grumbled.  
  
Kagome didn't completely understand at the time, but her mind grasped the idea of rebelling to the should's and should-not's of society. She went along with the notion.  
  
"Okay!" she said with a grin.  
  
Then she took off the only shirt she was wearing.  
  
"What are you doing?!" Inu-Yasha shouted.  
  
"It's hot, and Kaka no want to be hot, so Kaka take off froggy shirt," she explained, gesturing to her lime green shirt decorated with big- eyed frogs.  
  
"Put it back on! You hafta wear your shirt!" Inu-Yasha demanded.  
  
"Boys aren't only ones who don hafta wear shirts," the bare-chested Kagome said with a smile.  
  
"Yes, they are!"  
  
"Nuh-uh."  
  
"Yuh-huh, Kagome! Shirts and hair have nothing the same in 'em!" he argued.  
  
"It's fair, Inash! You grow your hair. Kaka no wear shirt. It's fair," she repeated.  
  
Inu-Yasha yelled that it wasn't, and Kagome yelled that it was. Moments later, Mrs. Higurashi hesitantly entered the backyard to see what the two were yelling about now. She yelled when she saw Kagome without her shirt. She forced her yelling child to wear her shirt, and explained why it was important for her to do so. When Inu-Yasha's mother yelled for him to come home for dinner, Inu-Yasha said his good-byes to the frustrated Kagome. Much yelling occurred, and everyone's throat was a tad sore.  
  
When Inu-Yasha went to Kagome's house to play the next day, she noticed a slight difference about his appearance.  
  
"Inash no look same as yesterday," she said, staring inquisitively at him.  
  
"I don't?" he said, instantly averting his eyes.  
  
"Is. your hair shorter?" she asked with a look of surprise.  
  
Inu-Yasha blushed and mumbled, "Just a little. I let my mamma trim it."  
  
Kagome simply nodded and suggested they play hide-and-go-seek. She never realized he had allowed his mother to trim his hair only for the reason that she couldn't not wear a shirt, and that somehow, for an inexplicable reason that made perfect sense in the mind of Inu-Yasha, his small sacrifice made it fair.  
  
~~~~~  
  
Present day  
  
Kagome and her family had moved back into the house they had lived in before they had moved. Few people had bought the house since it was difficult to take care of the shrine, and the latest owners quickly moved out when they heard that someone was hoping to buy the property, claiming they had seen ghosts when they were occupied with each other in sexual ways. No one wanted to be told that bit of unnecessary information, but it was told to him anyway. Kagome and Inu-Yasha were sitting on the steps leading to her front door. An awkward silence hung between them. Neither was certain of what to say to a friend one hadn't seen or talked to in years.  
  
Inu-Yasha spoke first, his curiosity overpowering him. "Why do you think I'm such a rebel?"  
  
Kagome sighed and, propping her elbows on her legs, she held her head in her small hands. A wistful look crossed her soft features, and she said, "You've always done what guys don't normally do. You were growing your hair out even when you were three."  
  
"I don't remember," Inu-Yasha lied, leading his eyes away from her face and to the sky.  
  
Kagome glanced at him and smiled. "I do. You wouldn't let your mother cut your hair for anything."  
  
Inu-Yasha stiffened.  
  
She noted this and veered away from that subject. "Anyway, I could never be as rebellious as you."  
  
"Ha!" Inu-Yasha barked. "Who insisted that she didn't have to wear her shirt?"  
  
"You do remember!" Kagome laughed.  
  
Inu-Yasha smirked. "Yeah, well, it's hard to forget something that stupid."  
  
"Why?"  
  
" 'Cuz girls just hafta wear a shirt in public."  
  
"Then I'll become a rebel like you. From now on, I refuse to wear a shirt," she declared.  
  
Inu-Yasha stuttered something incomprehensible, and locked his eyes on the now oh-so-interesting walkway beneath his feet.  
  
Kagome looked over at him and half-closed her eyes in slight disgust. "What? You think I actually wouldn't wear my shirt? Pervert."  
  
Speechless, Inu-Yasha blushed and turned away from her unnerving glare. "Stupid girl," he pouted.  
  
***** Still Present Day  
  
Kagome woke early the next morning to prepare herself for her first day of school and was out of the house by 7:30 P.M., giving her about half an hour to walk to school. Tugging self-consciously at her skirt, she hopped down the front steps and saw someone leaving the house next door.  
  
"Inu-Yasha!" she called.  
  
He groggily turned in her general direction. "Mmgulgumpf," he mumbled. He stopped to wait for her out of the goodness of his heart. And because he was practically asleep on his feet and momentarily stupid. Momentarily.  
  
Kagome caught up to him and thanked him for waiting. He hadn't even thought of saying 'you're welcome' when she began talking.  
  
"Why aren't you riding your motorcycle to school? Oh, I guess you're afraid someone might bother it. Is it rough like that at our high school? I'm really nervous since this is my first day of high school here and all. I'm worried that I won't make a good impression. Should I worry? I mean, I don't want to be all goody-goody, but I don't want to seem snobby, you know? Of course, if people see me with you, they'll probably assume that I'm a rebel like you. That, or they'll think I'm a snobby-do-gooder-trying- to-be-a-rebel. Not that I'm blaming you if they assume that. I'm really happy that we go to the same school. I don't know what I would do if I didn't know anyone. Yes, I know I've changed schools before, but it was easier then since I was only going into another sixth grade class. It's so much harder trying to fit in at high school! Even at a high school where you know a lot of people. I can't imagine what it's like at a school where you only know one person! I suppose I'll find out soon enough. Jeez! I really am talking your ear off aren't I? I'm sorry. I'm just so nervous, and when I get nervous, I can't stop talking. I have butterflies in my stomach, but it's not just them. There's a tornado in my stomach, too, and it's making the butterflies knock against the sides of my stomach, and if I don't watch it, they'll all burst threw my mouth and fly off and leave me to make it threw the day all by myself. Uncaring butterflies! How rude is tha-"  
  
"Kagome," Inu-Yasha said, interrupting her as he squinted in the bright, early-morning sun.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Shut up."  
  
"Okay."  
  
  
  
Author's Note: Yay! This was a fun chapter to write! I like this one so much because it really gives you all an idea of what I'm actually doing with this fanfic. Hopefully, it's gonna be good! I'm trying oh-so-hard. Have any of you noticed my love of personification? I have a nasty habit of it. ^.^'' Ima tell you all a stupid story! I was at soccer practice, and we had just run for twelve minutes straight, and I ran six laps, which is about a mile and a half. My calves (mooo!) were tingling and throbbing, and I turned to my friend Jessica and said, "My calves feel like they're about to pop out of my legs, flop around on the field, then shrivel up and die, and then someone will come across the field and say, 'Oh! These look like pigs' ears! I think I'll give them to my dog!' and then they'll take my big raisin-looking calves home to their dog, and I'll hafta hop over on my knees to their house and steal my mangled, slobbery calves back from the dog and then learn how to knit, so I can knit them back into it my legs." I am happy to report that they didn't pop out of my legs, but they are sore like a boar. Don't you all feel like eating some nice pork right about now? Ick.. ^.^'' 


	4. Meetings and Greetings

Disclaimer: I don't own Inu-Yasha, so I would appreciate it if certain dirty people would stop sending me their underwear. The stink is combining with the dead squirrel some dumby put into the trashcan with the undies, and it's really hot here, and it's even nastier when I have to throw out the ferret crap, so now it's all mingled together into one big stink, and I want to move to the house next door, but I don't mean that because I like my house more than the house next door. It just stinks here.  
  
Past and Present Intertwine  
  
Chapter Four- Meetings and Greetings  
  
Kagome precariously stood on one leg as she rubbed her free foot against the back of it. It wasn't that she had an itch, but it was more like a habit. Trying to appear pre-occupied and not a loser just standing around, she failed to take note that she looked like a flamingo and would make quite an interesting, but tacky, lawn ornament.  
  
The squinty-eyed guidance counselor handed her class schedule to her and gave her a quick explanation of where to find her classes.  
  
Kagome nodded, but before she could even glance at her schedule, Inu-Yasha snatched it from her shaking fingers and briefly skimmed over it.  
  
To nervous to become angry at his rude action, Kagome unconsciously moved her foot up to scratch at the back of her leg. She jumped when the obnoxious bell sounded for class.  
  
Without a word, Inu-Yasha grabbed her arm with his free hand devoid of her schedule and pulled her up a staircase before the undulating sea of students came crashing through the cafeteria doors and surrounded them. Kagome looked over her shoulder, but her head snapped forward again after she tripped on a step. Inu-Yasha had let go of her arm by now and was now guiding her, though she wasn't sure where.  
  
He halted a moment later in front of a door with a single, yellowed, wilting comic strip. Glancing at her schedule again, Inu-Yasha gave it to her and said, "Bye." He disappeared amongst the students who were beginning to seep into the hall, but Kagome wasn't paying attention. She checked to make sure she was indeed at her first period History and then entered the classroom to talk to her teacher. After a quick summary of what the class had covered in the first two weeks that she had missed, Kagome took a seat somewhere in the middle of the classroom when she failed to decide whether she should sit in the front or the back. Now taking her time to actually read her schedule, she nearly choked when she learned that she was in some class called 'Parenting.' After a dull, droning lecture during first period she quickly made her way down to the guidance counselor.  
  
"I did not sign up for this class," Kagome said, masking her fear that this mistake was a bad omen and would consequently ruin the rest of her day.  
  
Without so much as a fluttering of his eyelashes, the counselor replied, "There were no openings available for your other choice classes."  
  
"But I don't want to be in some parenting class. I don't have a baby or anything," she told him.  
  
"The class isn't just for students with children. It's a valuable learning experience for all students."  
  
"Isn't there any way I can get out of the class?" Kagome asked, ignoring his statement.  
  
"There are other classes with openings that you could switch into," the counselor said.  
  
"Like what?"  
  
With an irritated sigh, he pulled a list from the drawer above the one he kept his not-so-squeaky-clean magazines in and said, "For the class period before lunch, you have the choice of taking calculus 2, trigonometry, horticulture, or parenting."  
  
Kagome sighed, placed her schedule in her bag, and trudged to her second period without saying another word to the squinty-eyed counselor.  
  
~~~~~  
  
Kagome: Two and a half years old. Inu-Yasha: Four years old.  
  
Mrs. Higurashi stared out her kitchen window into the backyard where her daughter and the boy-next-door were arguing about which game should be played next.  
  
"Inash, Kaka wants to play Piggy Pack now. Kaka is bored with Tag. Inash had his turn, but now it is Kaka's turn," she reasoned.  
  
"I don't want to, and quit calling me Inash!"  
  
Kagome scrunched her face and quivered her lip. She had quickly learned that Inu-Yasha didn't appreciate a crying girl and would succumb to her will to make her eyes dry. "Puh-please, Inash!"  
  
Pouting, Inu-Yasha retrieved his protruding bottom lip and gave in. He was too young or perhaps too gullible to understand that Kagome was being a manipulative little toddler and faking as she always did when wanting to get her way. He squatted in the browning grass, and she leapt upon his shoulders. Grasping her chubby legs, he bounced her playfully and began running around the yard.  
  
"Yeek!" Kagome squeaked, clutching his long white hair and tugging. "Ged-yup, horsie-nash!"  
  
"Don't call me that!"  
  
"Whee!"  
  
~~~~~  
  
Present:  
  
As the class wearily dragged along, Kagome struggled to scribble the notes written on the overhead and comprehend them all at the same time. Her pen was dying on her, and she kept slamming it onto the paper in an attempt to keep the ink flowing, but also because she was frustrated.  
  
"Stupid calculus," she grumbled. "What is this lady talking about? What's the limit of what? How in the world did she get that answer?! What's a limit?! Oh no, I'm drowning already! I'm going to fail tomorrow's quiz! Ack! Forget the quiz! I'm going to fail the whole class!"  
  
Kagome was too busy worrying to realize that she might be struggling with the math because she wasn't exactly paying attention.  
  
*****  
  
Her second class eventually ended, leaving Kagome with twenty-four math problems that had to do with things she still didn't understand. Third period passed by a bit quicker, and thankfully, she wasn't too far behind in geography. When fourth period came, she checked her schedule for the class and room number, and her shoulders drooped when she read "parenting."  
  
Caught in the sea of students she had only had a bird's eye view of earlier, she felt like a tiny fish battling her way through the crashing waves. People from behind were pushing her, causing her to unintentionally push the people in front of her as students bumped into her on both sides of her body. Miraculously, she made it to her class before the bell rang and easily found a seat since a majority of the class was waiting until the last minute to take their seat.  
  
Wearily dropping her backpack, Kagome sat down and ran her fingers through her hair. Her last school hadn't been this crowded and certainly would not have messed up her schedule.  
  
"Oh well," she sighed, now patting her hair into place.  
  
"Hey," a boy said from her right. He was the first student to say anything to her all day except Inu-Yasha.  
  
Her hands quickly fell to her lap as she looked over to the boy. Even though he was sitting down, he looked tall. "Big boy" flashed through her mind, and she almost smiled but was trying to form a reply.  
  
"Hi," she said. "Wow, Kagome. That sure took a bunch of effort," she berated herself.  
  
"What's your name?" the boy asked with a slight tilt of his head, causing his tiny ponytail to swing into her view. She noticed that his ears were pierced with small blue and purple rhinestones that conveniently exemplified the features of his shiny hair. Or maybe it was just greasy.  
  
"I'm Kagome." Her hand silently crept from her lap and began to nervously twist a strand of her dark hair. Twirling her hair was another habit of hers.  
  
The bell rang, but several students still had not come to class; the teacher was still absent, as well. Kagome looked around the nearly bare classroom with a confused expression.  
  
"The teacher is usually late, so many students come late, too. I'm Miroku by the way." He dazzled her with a pearly white smile, or he would have if she hadn't been looking at his generously proportioned forehead that was messily covered by cropped bangs. "You must be new," he continued. "I know all the pretty girls, and I have never had the pleasure of making your acquaintance."  
  
"Okay," Kagome said as her finger got stuck in her hair.  
  
Miroku gave her an almost disapproving look. No thanks for his courtesy? Why, the nerve!  
  
Mentally whacking herself upside the head, Kagome realized she should have taken the compliment better.  
  
"I mean, thanks," she corrected, blushing.  
  
Miroku propped his handsome head on his large hand. "Are you not very good at receiving compliments?" he queried.  
  
"No, not really," Kagome replied with a chuckle.  
  
"I'm surprised that a girl of such beauty is not accustomed to such compliments."  
  
"Okay."  
  
Miroku stared at her.  
  
"Ugh! Quit that!" Kagome half-demanded half-pleaded. She was blushing again now.  
  
Miroku smiled at her again. He liked her already.  
  
"So, um, what are you doing in a parenting class?" Kagome asked, continuing to twirl her finger around her hair. Was she flirting? She couldn't tell. Probably.  
  
"Where is everyone?" a large-breasted woman snapped, entering the room.  
  
"The bathroom," Miroku lied with a serene smile upon his face.  
  
"Right," the teacher said.  
  
"We have a new student," Miroku chirped.  
  
"Who?" the large-breasted woman asked.  
  
"Kagome -um- Kagome," he informed her.  
  
"I'm Kagome Higurashi," she finished for him.  
  
"Right," the large-breasted woman said. "Kagome, this is an easy class. If you fail, you must be dumb. It's an easy credit, so don't screw up."  
  
"...yes," Kagome said, carefully looking at the woman and wondering if she could truly be a teacher.  
  
~~~~~  
  
Past (same time):  
  
Inu-Yasha flopped onto the ground and tossed Kagome over his shoulders. Rolling into a small patch of old daffodils, she sent the white stems billowing around her, and as she sat up, some of the particles drifted near her and nestled into her black hair.  
  
"Again!" she exclaimed, scrambling over to Inu-Yasha.  
  
He scooted away from her, saying, "No! I don't want to play Piggy- Back anymore."  
  
Kagome was going to start "crying" again, but a voice stopped her. Inu-Yasha stopped scooting away and listened with her.  
  
"That sounds like my cousin!" Inu-Yasha shouted, jumping to his feet. He ran into his yard next door, disappearing behind a bush.  
  
Kagome stood up and waddled after him, wondering whom Inu-Yasha was talking about. Shoving her way through the bush, she gathered a few leaves and a couple sticks in her hair.  
  
"Inash?"  
  
"Hey, Kagome. This is my cousin Sessou!" Inu-Yasha said, pointing at the older boy, who stared down at him with a slightly exasperated expression.  
  
"That is not my name," he said.  
  
"It is if I say it is," Inu-Yasha told him with a grin.  
  
Sessou grinned back at him, and then they started to wrestle. They rolled around on the grass, tugging at each other's clothes and hair. Eventually, Sessou was triumphantly sitting on Inu-Yasha, wearing a wide smile as he practically made his cousin eat dirt.  
  
Kagome was still watching them. She didn't know this boy, and she felt shy around him because of this.  
  
"Hi, Kagome," Sessou said, standing up.  
  
She didn't reply.  
  
"Aren't you going to say hi?" Sessou asked.  
  
Kagome shook her head and stared at the ground. Inu-Yasha was brushing himself off as he noticed her behavior.  
  
"It's okay, Kagome! I'll save you from the evil Sessou!" he declared.  
  
"I'm not evil," Sessou sniffed. "I'm just underloved."  
  
"Because you are evil!" Inu-Yasha insisted.  
  
Kagome watched them with uncertain eyes. This sounded like a game. Maybe it was a fun game.  
  
Sessou pounced on Inu-Yasha and the two began wrestling again.  
  
"Run, Kagome! I'll save you from the beast!" Inu-Yasha called from Sessou's grip.  
  
Kagome took a step back, looking at Inu-Yasha as if worried for his life.  
  
"Run! Run!" Inu-Yasha repeated. Sessou now had him pinned again and started to tickle him. Inu-Yasha's cries of mirth reached Kagome's pinky toe bone, and she decided to act.  
  
"I'm coming, Inash!" she cried. She ran over to Sessou and jumped on him, squishing him against Inu-Yasha. Both boys grunted as Kagome smothered herself over them. "Doggie-pile!" She giggled.  
  
"You have a weird friend, Inu-Yasha," Sessou told his cousin later that day after Kagome had been called home.  
  
"She just needed to learn to open up to a stranger," Inu-Yasha the hypocrite explained.  
  
"I meant that she was weird after she opened up," Sessou said.  
  
~~~~~  
  
Present:  
  
Miss Copperland, the teacher of parenting, was the most bizarre teacher Kagome had ever had, but she didn't really care. As long as she passed the class with no problems, she was fine, and passing wouldn't be a problem because they didn't seem to do much except go over things that were common knowledge. With twenty minutes left in the period, she let them talk with one another or whatever else they felt like doing.  
  
"I'm in parenting," Miroku said, recalling the girl's earlier inquiry, "because I love children and because I want children of my own someday."  
  
"That's so sweet," Kagome replied since she couldn't think of anything else to say.  
  
"Do you really think so?" Miroku asked.  
  
"Yeah." She began to twirl her finger through her hair again. "I want children, too."  
  
"We have something in common!" Miroku exclaimed as if this single similarity was the most wonderful thing ever in the entire existence of the earth and that all the galaxies would stop just for a moment to witness this one event.  
  
"I - guess we do," Kagome said with a small smile.  
  
Snatching her hand from her hair, he grasped it between his hands and looked into her brown eyes.  
  
"You are so beautiful! Willyouhavemychildren?"  
  
Kagome had to stop herself from saying 'okay' as she heard him squish in the last sentence.  
  
"Hey, Miss Copperland, front office says I need to show Kagome Higurashi around the school," Inu-Yasha said from the doorway.  
  
"Right," the large-breasted woman said without glancing away from her magazine.  
  
Kagome pulled her hand out of Miroku's grasp. "I gotta go. Nice meeting you. Bye." She jumbled the words together as she quickly grabbed her backpack and made a dash for the door.  
  
Shutting the door behind her, she gave Inu-Yasha a look of gratitude. "You saved me!" she said.  
  
"From what?" he asked, starting off down the hall.  
  
"Some guy," she stated, following. "So where we going?"  
  
"The cafeteria," he replied.  
  
"Then what?"  
  
"What to you mean?"  
  
"You said you were going to show me around the school," she said with an irritated expression. "You said so less than a minute ago."  
  
"I lied," he told her.  
  
She stared at him as she walked up beside him. "Why?"  
  
"To get us out of class early, so we can get to the cafeteria first," he said.  
  
Kagome sighed in exasperation. "I could really use a tour of the school, you know."  
  
"Then we can use this excuse again tomorrow, saying that we didn't have enough time for one today. Tours can take up to an hour," he said, jumping down the steps.  
  
"You want to skip class?"  
  
"Of course not."  
  
"Are you being sarcastic?"  
  
"Of course not."  
  
"You jerk," she grumbled, but she smiled and followed him.  
  
As Inu-Yasha had hoped, they were the first people in the cafeteria, and they sat down at one of the large, round tables after they bought their lunch.  
  
"What are you friends like?" Kagome asked as she poked at her mashed potatoes with her plastic fork.  
  
Inu-Yasha shrugged, watching other students enter the cafeteria. "Don't worry about what they'll think of you. It's not like you're a loser or something."  
  
"You don't think I'm a loser, Inu-Yasha?" Kagome asked.  
  
"I meant that they wouldn't think you're a loser," he said.  
  
"But what do you think?" she prodded.  
  
He said, "I think you're a dork."  
  
Kagome was about to make a remark about him when a girl came up beside him, looking at Kagome, and asked, "Hey, Inu-Yasha, who's this?"  
  
"This is Kagome," Inu-Yasha introduced. "Kagome, this is Sango."  
  
"Hi, Kagome," Sango greeted her with a bright smile.  
  
Kagome stared at her lap where her hands lay, thumbs twiddling. "Hi," she said.  
  
"Jeez, Kagome, don't be so damn shy!" Inu-Yasha nearly shouted in exasperation. "You look silly."  
  
"I look silly?!" Kagome's head snapped up. "You're the one trying to be a bad-boy with your long hair and skipping classes!"  
  
Inu-Yasha lurched forward from his relaxed position in the chair. "You little goody-two-shoes!" he sputtered. He couldn't think of a better insult at the time, and he kicked himself for it.  
  
"Do you two know each other or something? I mean, you seem familiar with each other," Sango observed.  
  
"We grew up together," Kagome explained.  
  
"You have my condolences," Sango sympathized.  
  
"Thanks." Kagome laughed.  
  
"Sango, you traitor," Inu-Yasha muttered, slouching back in the chair again.  
  
"Hey hey hey!" a short girl with dark shoulder-length hair and pale skin cried.  
  
"Hey, Kiki," Sango said.  
  
Who you, Baboo?" the girl Kiki asked Kagome.  
  
"I'm Kagome. It's nice to meet you." Even though, Kagome was still feeling shy, her desire to prove Inu-Yasha false was stronger, so she devoured her shyness with her turkey and noodles.  
  
"No need to be formality-warmal, Kago-maymay. This is not Pizza Hut in the hut on Tuesday Poker Night," Kiki explained, sitting between Kagome.  
  
Kagome looked at the other people at the table, and seeing that they weren't reacting to this girl's odd behavior, she didn't either.  
  
"What fortune!" came a familiar voice.  
  
Kagome looked over her shoulder and wasn't surprised to see Miroku hovering over her.  
  
"I'm glad to see you Kagome," Miroku said, pulling up a chair beside her and pushing Kiki a few feet out of his way. Kiki merely continued to chew her sandwich and make comments about doughnuts and heart monitors.  
  
"I think fate is bringing us together, Kagome," Miroku said.  
  
"You two know each other?" Inu-Yasha asked, confused.  
  
"We met in parenting," Kagome explained.  
  
"Yes, it must have been fate," Miroku went on kiddingly. "It has brought us together, my Kagome, and I will never let it tear us apart."  
  
"Oh, my God," Kagome groaned with a small smile, propping her elbows on the table and covering her face with her hands.  
  
"Just forget him, Kagome," Inu-Yasha said, rolling his eyes at his goofy friend.  
  
"I can't," she said, looking up at him as a few graceful strands of hair fell daintily over her eyes.  
  
"What?" Inu-Yasha asked. He turned to her and stared. Did she like Miroku or something?  
  
"I can't forget him," she said, "because his hand is on my thigh!"  
  
She turned and pushed him away from her with all her might, shoving him into Kiki's chair, which sent Kiki into Inu-Yasha's lap and her sandwich across the table at Sango. Inu-Yasha slammed his chair back, trying to get Kiki out of his lap as she went on about the use of cotton for television antennae warmers. Sango, unharmed by the sandwich because she had darted out of the way, was laughing about it all. Kagome was giving Kiki and Inu-Yasha her apologies as Inu-Yasha picked Kiki up from his lap and tossed her into her chair where she belonged.  
  
When they had all calmed down, Kagome said, "I'm sorry, you guys! I didn't mean to. I-"  
  
"It's okay, Kagome. We understand," Miroku cut in. "You really just can't take a compliment very well."  
  
Kagome glared at him. "You call grabbing my thigh a compliment?"  
  
"What else would I call it?" Miroku asked.  
  
"Harassment," Inu-Yasha said.  
  
"Only to those who don't know the depths of the feelings Kagome and I share," Miroku explained.  
  
"Miroku, I don't like you like that. You haven't even given me to time to like you as a friend. Just back off, okay?" Kagome said, turning to the boy and putting her hand on his arm.  
  
"As you wish," he said, setting his hand on hers.  
  
"Don't touch me."  
  
"Okay."  
  
*****  
  
As the students left the cafeteria and headed to fourth period, Kagome followed Inu-Yasha closely. When she had caught up with him, she said, "It went okay, right?" She was referring to what his friends thought about her.  
  
"You fit in pretty well," he said, glancing down at her.  
  
"Hey!" she snapped on the offense.  
  
"What? I said you fit in pretty well. That's good!" Inu-Yasha defended.  
  
"I easily fit in with weird people. I must be a weird person," she sighed, melodramatically.  
  
"Quit praising yourself," he said and turned down another hall, leaving her with that statement.  
  
"Okay, Inash."  
  
  
  
  
  
Author's Note: *peeks over keyboard* YEEK! I'm so sorry! I made this chapter nice and long to make up for my lack of updating. Okay? No? I'm so sorry! It's not that I was giving up or had no ideas (I have plenty of ideas! Hooray!). I just got caught up with my fall break, and then I got caught up with make-up work, and finals were this week, and I had to cram for calculus and chemistry, and now it's all over, and I was super bored, so I decided to finish this chapter. ^.^'' teehee? Well, anyway, now that I'm done groveling and making excuses for my sorry patootaloot, I'll tell you guys 'interesting' stuff! O.o Thanks to all my reviewers! I appreciate you all so much! *hands out Halloween candy* Don't worry! It isn't old. ^.^ Even though soccer ended about a month ago, my calves still hurt sometimes. I really hurt one when I accidentally whacked my right calf with my Spanish book! Thanks to the kind soul who asked about them! ^.^ They feel better to be remembered. My disclaimer was written over a month ago or so. O.o I wrote the last 75% of this chapter just now! I want to do a Gargoyles fanfic, and I want to know if any of you would be interested in reading it. If you would be interested, leave a review about this chapter, please, and in it tell me if you'd read it or not. For those of you who might not recall, Gargoyles is that nearly decade old Disney show! Japanese animators with cool English voices! Hooray! O.o None of you will be interested, I'm sure, but it never hurts to ask, right? I'm truly sorry if you think the characters are Out Of Character. I'm trying to make them believable for this day and age while using characteristics of their actual person. This chapter might be corny to you. I like it myself because it was silly, but silly is often times corny. If you thought any part of this was corny, please leave a review and tell me which parts were and why. Of course, some parts might not need explanation! Lol This is supposed to be a Romance/Humor fanfic. My humor is not corn (I hope), and I want to make sure it isn't even if it might be. I'll try to improve for you guys! I feel that my fanfics are like apples growing on a tree, and as they grow, they become more beautiful and shiny, but as they fall off the tree, they don't feel pretty anymore because they are all brown and nasty, and then they hit the ground, and apple puss squirts everywhere, and now everyone can see the apples for what they really are. Bits of corn. I made Sessou's little nickname Sessou because He might as well have a nickname, too. I couldn't remember how to spell his name. O.o  
  
I think that's all I have to say for now. Oh! Real quick story about my baby cousin's first birthday party! Since it was near Halloween, it was a costume party, and I dressed up as a cat. I bought some bright orange yarn and made a totally tacky tail (alliteration!) and tied it to my belt-loop. I bought a headband with blue leopard print ears with blue sparklies in the middle. I tried to put orange felt over the ears, but it looked like really dumb horns, so I wore them without any felt. The best part was the make-up. My mom did an awesome job, and I looked like a cat with a really mangy tail and tacky ears. Anyway, there was this little boy dressed up as a pirate, and I was sitting on a bed, keeping an eye on my youngest brother, who was on the floor watching videos. This little boy jumps into my lap and stares at my face, and he asks, "What's that on your face?" I told him it was make- up that would come off if I washed it off or if I rubbed it off. I demonstrated by wiping some of it off with my finger and showing it to him. This little boy was a four year old at most. Probably three. He looked up at me and said, "Why don't you put it on your boobies?" I nearly dropped his ass on the floor. Instead, I told him, "Because no one's gonna see it there, and no one is ever going to see it there." Let this be a warning to you all! Even little kids can be surprisingly dirty! Happy late Halloween! ^.^ 


	5. A Glimpse of White

Disclaimer: Inu-Yasha isn't mine. If he were, you would be jealous, and you would bow before me and beg for ownership of such a creature, and every night you would pray to whatever lord you worship that I might be slaughtered in some freak accident, and magically, I would leave Inu-Yasha to you in my will, but that won't happen. Should I die, I will make like an Egyptian and have Inu-Yasha buried with me. Yes, Inu-Yasha is lucky he isn't mine.  
  
  
  
Past and Present Intertwine  
  
  
  
Chapter Five- A Glimpse of White  
  
  
  
"This is getting old.." Kagome sighed inwardly as the next teacher introduced her to the entire class that kept staring. She was tugging at her skirt as if by doing this, people would become disinterested and look away. "I hate being the center of attention, and I hate people staring at me. Why won't the teacher just tell me where to sit already?" Unfortunately for the poor Kagome, at least twenty-one pairs of eyes were fixed on her and only her as she felt her face turn an interesting shade of crimson.  
  
Finally, the teacher Mrs. Gensile stopped asking her general questions such as 'Where did you move from?' 'Did you like your last school?' 'Have you liked this school so far?' and 'What's your favorite subject?' and told her to site down at a desk in the front near the door.  
  
"Yes, please do give me the worst seat in the whole classroom. I'll just stare at the wall all during the period," Kagome grumbled to herself.  
  
Even though she had had a nice lunch period, she was suddenly exhausted and not herself. "Stupid hormonal driven moods," she moaned and presently slouched forward over the desk as she watched the way Mrs. Gensile's necks jostled against each other as she spoke.  
  
Half way through the class while Mrs. Gensile was rummaging through her desk for pictures she could show on the overhead, Kagome felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning her eyes because she was too lazy to turn her entire head at the moment, she finally noticed that Sango was sitting beside her.  
  
"Oh! Sorry, I didn't notice you were by me," Kagome quickly explained. She hoped she hadn't seemed rude for not realizing.  
  
Sango smiled and gave an understanding nod. "This period is the worst, I swear. Full stomach from lunch and wondering when the hell we'll get out of this place."  
  
Kagome sniggered quietly as Mrs. Gensile walked past her and back to the front of the class.  
  
Kagome wasn't sure when the class would be over, but one minute till noon, Sango was on the edge of her seat, eyes locked on the clock. Heaving her heavy backpack on, Kagome checked her schedule for her next class.  
  
"Hey, Sango. Where is the Human Anatomy and Sports class?"  
  
Her eyes never straying from the omniscient clock, Sango replied, "It's in the same hall as my next class, so I'll show you the way."  
  
The bell finally rang and Kagome was prepared to brave the perilous halls once again. Keeping as close to Sango as she could, she pushed past student after student as they made their way across the hall, up the stairs, and down the corridor to a door covered with gift wrapping paper of hundreds of bears surrounded by hundreds of hearts.  
  
"This is the science hall," Sango informed her, pointing her finger up the hall and down the hall. "My next teacher is a stickler for punctuality, so I have to go." Then she was gone before Kagome had opened her mouth to say 'thanks' or 'goodbye.'  
  
Entering the room, Kagome noticed that it was a particularly full classroom, and surely not all the students were in the room yet since the bell wouldn't ring for another forty seconds. Lifting her eyes to the ceiling, she made her way to the teacher's desk. "Here we go again with the introduction," she groaned.  
  
"Hi, um, Mr. Linquist. I'm the new student Kagome Higurashi. Can you tell me what this class has covered so far?" she said, feeling silly.  
  
"The skeleton," Mr. Linquist replied. "Ack-chally, we've got a test over it today. It's pretty easy, so maybe you'll be wanting to study this paper of the skeleton here since it's got all it's parts labeled already." The man was tall even when sitting; the man was wide even when sitting. Lacking hair on his head, he didn't make up for it on his face. He didn't have a mustache or a beard, and his face was as smooth as a jellybean.  
  
Deciding she would rather take the test now than make it up later, Kagome nodded and took the paper from Mr. Linquist. "Where should I sit?"  
  
"Anywhere," he said, gesturing to the available chairs with a large grayish, pink hand.  
  
After she took a seat by the window, she looked over the paper as the bell rang. Like he had said, it was easy since it only covered the bones she already knew like the scapula, the femur, and so on. She reviewed all of it so she would at least feel more confident about it.  
  
Mr. Linquist gave the class of thirty-seven fifteen minutes to review the skeleton parts before the test, but Kagome used the time to doodle hearts and flowers and other happy things. When the review time was up, Mr. Linquist put a picture of the skeleton on the overhead and covered the answers that were on the side with some textbooks. The students were to write down the answers that corresponded with the numbers pointing to the various bones. Kagome quickly finished the test, turned it in, and resumed doodling hearts and flowers and other happy things as the slower students finished. Unfortunately, hearts and flowers and other happy things are only fun to doodle for so long, and Kagome soon closed her notebook and took to staring at the trees, trying to find different figures in the leaves. She thought she glimpsed something white on part of the roof of the second floor, but Mr. Linquist's words distracted her before she could identify what the white was.  
  
~~~~~  
  
Kagome: Three years old. Inu-Yasha: Four and a half years old.  
  
"Naptime, Kaka," Mrs. Higurashi called from the laundry room where she was folding clothes.  
  
Kagome, who was in her room looking at the pictures in her books, grimaced but sweetly called back, "Yes, Mommy. I'm gongo wight to seep by mysef today."  
  
Mrs. Higurashi smiled and prided herself for raising such an independent child so able to take care of herself. She was already doing things like getting her cup of juice out of the refrigerator, putting her toys away, putting her shoes and shirt on, and now, bless her dear mother's soul, she was putting herself down for a nap.  
  
"Yes!" Mrs. Higurashi cried, small tears glistening on the brims of her eyelids. "Be independent, dear daughter! Nap on your own! I'm so very proud of you!"  
  
However, Kagome heard none of her mother's praises for she had crept down the stairs into the study and out the window into her mother's favorite patch of daisies. She leapt out of them, but the damage had been done. A majority of the daisies were crushed and wilted in a sickly manner.  
  
Kagome considered her options. She could never speak a word about the flowers and simply wait until her mom found out before saying she didn't do it, she could admit to her mother that she had been trying to sneak out into the backyard to play and in doing so, squashed the flowers, or she could fix it. Seeing that the flowers seemed to be wilting in sorrow and some were packed into the mud, making them dirty, Kagome decided they only needed some cheering up, but how was she to cheer up a flower? Her mother had once said that flowers shouldn't be treated differently that people, and that they enjoyed a nice chat just like anyone else, so Kagome tried to cheer them up with some nice conversation. It didn't seem to work, so she thought again.  
  
"When Grandpa was sick in the ospicial, we took him some flowersh, and he said he felt all betters because I gave him the flowersh," Kagome reflected. "Maybe if I give the flowersh some friends, they will be happy again!"  
  
With this in mind, she giddily ran to the old lady's yard next door. The gate separating the two yards was made of black rods that were spaced fairly far apart, but just enough, in fact, for Kagome to walk through. She stepped over the low bar that lay parallel to the ground and slipped though the rods. Luckily, the old lady next-door was an avid gardener, and had nearly every kind of flower Kagome could even imagine growing in her backyard. Unsure of what kinds of flowers would make the depressed daisies happy and bright again, Kagome picked at least one of each, though she picked several daisies just in case daisies generally liked to socialize with one another best.  
  
She quickly hurried back to her yard though she had a difficult time getting all the flowers through the gate. Along the way, she unknowingly dropped some flowers here and there, but she was too eager to heal her mother's daisies to notice.  
  
When she had returned to the scene of the accident, she took each of the flowers she had picked and poked the stems into the soft dirt, so they would look nice and perky. Kagome believed she had done her job well since all the flowers looked bright and happy together, but her mother's daisies still looked gloomy. She decided that more flowers would make the daisies happy, and she headed to the old lady's garden once again.  
  
She ran with her face turned to the sky, feeling as if she could make the world a better place despite even the deepest of sorrows, when she was suddenly looking up at the face of Inu-Yasha.  
  
"Inash!" Kagome squeaked, surprised to see him looking down at her when she was looking up. They were more or less the same height.  
  
"Quiet!" Inu-Yasha shushed her, his long white hair falling past his face and hanging inches above Kagome's.  
  
Craning her neck back further to get a better look at him, Kagome turned around in a circle to keep her balance as she stared at him. "What're you doing all the way up tare?"  
  
"Climbing trees."  
  
She finally noticed that his head was sticking out from some leaves. "Then why are you in my yard, Inash?"  
  
"My yard doesn't have any trees."  
  
"Yes, it does. It has the one."  
  
"Don't be silly, Kagome. That tree isn't good for anything like climbing," Inu-Yasha scoffed. In truth, the tree in Inu-Yasha's yard made a good climbing tree, but Inu-Yasha was unable to ascend its branches because he was too short, and he didn't want to admit it.  
  
"Oh," Kagome said.  
  
"What are you doing?" Inu-Yasha asked, trying to seem disinterested but looked stupid instead.  
  
Kagome had been distracted by her friend's odd activity, but she remembered her daisy dilemma. "I'm making daisies happy," she told him sweetly.  
  
Inu-Yasha's face was blank for a moment before he commented, "That's stupid. Flowers can't be happy."  
  
"Flowersh have feewings just like anything else. My mommy saids that flowersh will grow if you take care of them and love them enough," Kagome defended.  
  
Inu-Yasha rolled his eyes like he'd seen his mother do when his dad teased her with corny jokes. The blood was beginning to go to his head, and he didn't feel like arguing with Kagome under that circumstance. His face disappeared amongst the leaves as he crawled to the base of the tree and climbed down to Kagome.  
  
"Will you help me, Inash?" Kagome asked, presenting him with a pleading expression.  
  
"With what?"  
  
"With making the daisies happy."  
  
"Oh, um, okay," Inu-Yasha agreed, rubbing his forhead.  
  
Poor Inu-Yasha became an accomplice.  
  
  
  
~~~~~  
  
Present:  
  
Human Anatomy and Sports was now over, and Kagome quickly made her way to her last class of the day humanities. As soon as she walked in the door, she saw Inu-Yasha sitting on a desk near the window. She was surprised to see him there, but he didn't look at all surprised to see her.  
  
"I saved you a seat," he said, nodding to the seat beside him.  
  
"Thanks," Kagome told him with a smile, and instead, she sat down in the seat in front of him.  
  
Inu-Yasha raised an eyebrow at the back of her head as she began pulling a notebook and pencil out of her backpack. "I said I saved you the seat beside me," he said.  
  
"I know," she said, clicking her mechanical pencil for more lead.  
  
"Then why are you sitting in front of me?" Inu-Yasha snapped, irritated that she wasn't looking at or paying much attention to him.  
  
She turned around and rested her arm on his desk, looking up at him. "I like to sit near the window," she said.  
  
Inu-Yasha rolled his eyes.  
  
Kagome noticed this and continued, "Also, I want to always be in your direct line of site, so you'll be forced to think about me and maybe even fantasize a bit." She winked.  
  
His jaw dropping in horror at her words, Inu-Yasha sputtered, "Fanta-? Wha- ? You? N-never!"  
  
Kagome laughed at him and turned back around to see Sango sitting down in the seat beside her. They quickly began talking, as Inu-Yasha stewed.  
  
Why was she making him stutter like a moron? An even better question was how? Normally, he would have come back with a witty retort and proceed to lick his lips for effect, but Kagome had caught him off guard. He had never expected her to say anything like that to him, and he couldn't figure out why it made his stomach turn like he was nauseous.  
  
"Inu-Yasha, why didn't you tell me Kagome was in this class with us?" Sango asked after Kagome told her that Inu-Yasha had saved a seat for her.  
  
"Why should I tell you anything?" Inu-Yasha grumped, turning his head to look out the window.  
  
Sango's shook her head and waved a hand at Inu-Yasha, dismissing his words, which cauesd a giggle to escape Kagome's lips.  
  
Humanities quickly became Kagome's favorite class. Not only were the assignments very hands on, the students could do them while talking to each other, so Kagome and Sango carried on with occasional sarcastic remarks volunteered from Inu-Yasha.  
  
  
  
~~~~~  
  
Past (same time):  
  
Kagome and Inu-Yasha stuck the stems of the various flowers from the old lady's garden into the dirt, and eventually, there were so many that they couldn't even see the original daisies, so they believed that the flowers had cheered up and were standing tall amongst their peers. Unknown to them, the daisies had long ago been trapped beneath their so-called peers as the children continued to stack more atop and around them.  
  
"That should do it," Kagome said, patting her hands together in an attempt to brush the dirt off.  
  
"Finally," Inu-Yasha said, wiping his dirty hands on his pants.  
  
"We have made a diffence to these flowersh today, Inash," Kagome told him proudly with a grin. "I am so happy."  
  
"Yeah, okay. Do you want to play a game?"  
  
"Okay."  
  
"Inu-Yasha Panyani Tsujimoto, you haul you guilty butt back to this house NOW!" someone shouted. That someone just happened to be his mother.  
  
"Inash is in trouble," Kagome observed, sticking her finger in her mouth.  
  
Shoulders slumping, Inu-Yasha walked off without saying goodbye.  
  
"Now who will I play a game with?" Kagome worried.  
  
However, who to play a game with was the least of her troubles as her mother came out the backdoor to see what Mrs. Tsujimoto was yelling about. Before Mrs. Higurashi had even opened the door, she saw Kagome standing in the yard, dirt on her hands, dirt on her face, dirt on her legs, and dirt on her shoes, but worst of all, she saw that Kagome wasn't in bed like she said she would be.  
  
Slowly, Mrs. Higurashi opened the back door, and slowly, she folded her arms across her chest. Kagome hunched her shoulders and felt her features tug into a guilty expression.  
  
Mrs. Higurashi yelled a bit after Kagome confessed that she had lied to her about taking her nap. Then she yelled more when she found out that Kagome had squashed all her daisies. Finally, she really let loose when she received the call from the old lady next door who said that her flower beds had been savagely ripped apart and a trail of flowers was leading back to the Higurashi yard.  
  
Kagome cried and sniffled and said she was sorry, and Mrs. Higurashi felt bad that she had yelled so much at her, so she gave Kagome a smaller punishment than she had originally intented. Kagome cried about her punishment, too, but Mrs. Higurashi held firm to no desserts for a week as well as apologizing to the old lady.  
  
*****  
  
A week later Inu-Yasha came to Kagome's yard where she was hopping up and down on one side of the teetor-totter.  
  
"Where've you been?" Kagome asked, looking up, then down at him as she continued to jump.  
  
"I got in trouble for leaving the house without permission and climbing trees when I was told not to, and my mom made me play in only my yard for a week," Inu-Yasha explained, glancing back at his butt and remembering the spanking he had received.  
  
Kagome stopped jumping. "I got in trouble for lying and picking somon else's flowersh," she admitted.  
  
Inu-Yasha turned pale. "Did- did you tell that I helped?" he asked.  
  
Kagome shook her head. "Should I have?"  
  
"No," Inu-Yasha replied breathing a sigh of relief. He would probably be spanked again if his parents found out he had picked some poor old lady's flowers without permission.  
  
Inu-Yasha straddled the other end of the teetor-totter, and the two began hopping up and down.  
  
~~~~  
  
Present Day:  
  
The entire humanities class was gathered before the door, and when the final bell rang, they burst into the hall. Kagome didn't notice where Inu-Yasha had gone or even when he had left Sango and her, but Sango made an offer to let Kagome share a locker with her instead of going to all the trouble of getting her own to which Kagome readily agreed. After showing her where the locker was and giving her the combination to the lock, Sango had to leave so she wouldn't miss her bus. Kagome practiced opening the lock a few times then unloaded the books she wouldn't need for homework or anything. Despite losing two textbooks and three binders, Kagome's backpack was still rather heavy, but she hefted it onto her back and started off down the stairs to the main entrance of the school, and she was very proud of herself for achieving such a thing as finding her way out of this seemingly massive school on her own.  
  
Inu-Yasha was waiting for her on the steps outside.  
  
"What are you still doing here?" Kagome asked, surprised. He just kept surprising her today, and she couldn't figure out why she kept allowing herself to be startled by him. Expect the unexpected with him if he's like this, right?  
  
"Waiting for you," Inu-Yasha said, standing up and starting down the steps.  
  
"Thanks," Kagome said, hopping down after him.  
  
When they had both reached the bottom, Kagome caught up so she was walking beside him. Inu-Yasha noted this and asked, "Don't you want to walk in front of me, so I'll be forced to think and fantasize about you?" he joked, commending himself for thinking of something witty.  
  
"If you want me to so much, I guess I can't refuse," Kagome said with a large grin. She stepped in front of him and continued her trek.  
  
A mix of a pout and a smile contorting his face, Inu-Yasha followed her all the way home.  
  
  
  
  
  
Author's Note: Did you catch the joke at the following her home part at the end? The dog followed her home? I thought it was cute. ^.^ Anyway, woo! It's been a while since I've updated either of my ongoing Inu- Yasha fanfics! ^.^'' I won't ask for forgiveness for my lack of updates because I'm not sorry for taking a break. However, I will provide all of you with my explanation. For the past month or so, I have been laboring on something that has meant more to me than any fanfic I have ever written, and I really do love my fanfics. ^.^'' I'll give out more information about this oh-so-special thing later on, but for now you can expect a new chapter every other week or so. Maybe even every week! O.o lol For those of you who read my other story Unfortunate Triangle, I will be updating that as soon as, but tomorrow is Buy a Christmas Tree and Gifts Day, and next week I have two portfolios due, so that fanfic might have to wait until next week. *sigh* Well, I want to tell all of you a funny story. Hm. Well, I had an interesting dream! Woo, this is good. Heh heh. You know how in some dreams, something has happened to you, but you weren't in that part of the dream, and you just know that it happened to you? Well, in my dream  
  
I f*cked an Indian. I missed out on the bopbop bit, but I was in the Indian guy's house like the day after the donkey squabble scene, and he was lying on the floor with his foot up on the arm of the couch. I sat down on the couch and turned to look at him. I said, "Did we really?" and he smiled and said, "Yeaaah." Then I said 'okay' and nuzzled his foot! Lol That's the only part of the dream I can remember. It was so odd, and I had some fun telling it to my friends. We made jokes like what one would say during a stereotypical Indian corking, and I raised my hand and exclaimed, "HOW! HOW!" and one friend started up with rain dances and things. Woo, it was a hoot and a nanny. Hey! I'm using Word to type this up, and they have the word Hooverville in the dictionary part and it says it's a town ERECTED on the OUTSKIRTS of a city during the GREAT depression of the 1930s to HOUSE the poor and HOMELESS. Lol Just thought I'd put that there because it sounds silly. O.o Just thought I would capitalize certain words for effect. Lol Oh yeah! Also, I'm dropping the Gargoyles fanfic, and I am assuming Harry Potter fanfics. If anyone would like to read them, I'll let you know when I've posted them. ^.^ That's all. Thanks for reading! Tune in next week for something hopefully a bit more interesting! Happy late Thanksgiving! 


	6. They Love to Tease

Disclaimer: In case you didn't know, I do not own Inu-Yasha, but if I did, you might want to thank me for creating such an awesome manga that became such a successful anime with all the characters that you just can't get enough of. That's what you might want to do. Yes.  
  
  
  
Past and Present Intertwine  
  
Chapter Six- They Love to Tease  
  
The rest of the week passed slowly for Kagome, but she was very cheerful when Friday morning came upon the world at last. She even had a small skip in her gate as she made her journey to the devil's workshop on earth she had the general habit of calling school.  
  
"So, Inu-Yasha, what do you do for fun on Fridays?" Kagome couldn't help but grin like a child getting candy at her last word.  
  
"I don't know." He shrugged. "Beer. Drugs. Crack whores."  
  
Instantly coming to a halt, Kagome whirled around to face him. "Excuse me?!" she cried.  
  
"What?" he teased. "You aren't into that sort of thing?"  
  
"No, I'm just surprised we have something in common! I love beer and drugs. Especially crack whores," Kagome replied, turning around and resuming her journey.  
  
Inu-Yasha gaped after her. "Y-you really like that stuff?" he barely managed to say, easily catching up to walk beside her.  
  
"You're so easy, you know that?" she grinned and poked his arm.  
  
"Get off," he pouted.  
  
"Mopey boy. Mopey boy," she chanted playfully. "Really, though. What do you do for fun?"  
  
"I'm not telling," he grumbled.  
  
"Honestly!" Kagome snapped. "Don't be so immature!" She stuck her tongue out at him just to rile him.  
  
"Oh, god! Put that thing away before I barf up my breakfast."  
  
"What?" Kagome asked, trying to look down at her protruding tongue. "Wus wong wi my tong?"  
  
"It has you attached to it, that's what's wrong." Inu-Yasha laughed at what he personally thought was the most brilliant comeback in the entire universe.  
  
Tongue still sticking out of her mouth, Kagome looked up at him and smiled. "You'll be proud of that one for a while, won't you?"  
  
Scowling, Inu-Yasha jogged ahead a bit thus leaving her to wonder what was so wrong with her tongue that he would be disgusted by it.  
  
*****  
  
During her first few classes, Kagome tried to remain patient and studious, but it just wasn't working anymore. By her parenting class she was more than ready to get out of school for the weekend; she was agonizing for the clock to read 3:20 P.M.  
  
She took her time getting to parenting since the busty teacher didn't care if anyone was on time or not. Miroku was already in his seat, and he waved when she entered the classroom. Smiling, Kagome returned the salutation and sat down in her seat.  
  
She found herself sitting on something warm with five outstretched feelers that gently squeezed her bottom. Squealing in astonishment, she leapt up, banged her thigh into the desk, and lost her balance. The desk and chair fell with her in it, and she bumped her head on another desk along the way. Miroku jumped out of his chair and helped the incredibly angry and red-faced girl to her feet.  
  
"Are you okay, Kagome?" he asked.  
  
"I'm alive," she murmured, "but you won't be if you don't take your hands off me right now."  
  
Snatching his hands off her shoulders, he said, "You want it, you've got it. Toyota!"  
  
"I already have a headache, so please don't make it worse," she groaned, massaging her temples.  
  
"I'm sorry, Kagome," Miroku said sincerely after he had properly set her desk on the floor. "I didn't mean to."  
  
"You didn't mean to grab my butt, or you didn't mean to make me fall over?"  
  
"The latter," he said with a small grin.  
  
Furrowing her eyebrows, Kagome looked away just in case she couldn't help but smile. Despite his not-so-discreet intentions and intolerable groping, Miroku had quickly become her friend, and she didn't want to stay mad at him since it might strain their budding friendship. Being the new girl, she couldn't separate herself from the friends she had made like that because she didn't know Miroku well enough to know if he would never speak to her again of if he wouldn't care or something.  
  
"I hate being in this position," she admitted to herself silently. "I should stay mad for at least a couple days, but I don't want to be mean and drive him away. Besides, it's Friday." It was a good thing she had turned her head or else Miroku would have seen her impish smile at the thought of it being a Friday.  
  
"So are you mad?" Miroku asked a bit timidly.  
  
"Not really," she confessed, "but next time, don't make me fall out of my chair."  
  
"So there will be a next time?" Miroku's face brightened like a little boy receiving a new bike.  
  
Realizing her mistake, Kagome blushed and said, "No!"  
  
"One day, Kagome, you will figure out that I am the best guy for you," he told her, granting her a confident wink.  
  
"Maybe, Miroku, but unless you quit molesting me, I'm afraid nothing but friendship or a restraining order will be between us," she replied coolly.  
  
Miroku chuckled.  
  
~~~~~  
  
Kagome: Three years old Inu-Yasha: Four and a half years old  
  
"You puts the ball on ta stander and hit it, Kagome," Inu-Yasha explained, pointing to the bright yellow, plastic t-ball stand.  
  
"Oh, okay," Kagome said, waddling forward with the large, hollow ball in her small peachy hand.  
  
"Put eh there," Inu-Yasha instructed.  
  
"Kaka know what she's doon," she said, still in the habit of referring to herself in the third person.  
  
"Hurry up 'en," he replied impatiently.  
  
After carefully placing the ball on the stand, Kagome swiped at it with her hand.  
  
"No!" Inu-Yasha shouted. "You hits it with the bat, dummy!"  
  
"Dote call me dummy, stupid!" Kagome shouted back, stomping over to the ball. Again she placed it on the stand, stepped back, and then hit it with the bat. The ball fell to the ground at her feet.  
  
"That's not a hit!" Inu-Yasha cried. "You didn't hit it rights even!"  
  
"The stand ish too talls!" Kagome complained.  
  
"No, you're just too little. Go stand over there. I'm gon show you how to hits a ball correctically!"  
  
As she stomped over to where he had been standing, he picked the bat and the ball up.  
  
"Puts it here like thish," he said, demonstrating as he spoke. "Then you hit it like this!" He twisted his torso as much as he could, holding the bat unsteadily over his shoulder, then he unraveled himself and smacked the ball as hard as he could.  
  
Even though the ball was hollow and plastic, it was hard enough to make Kagome cry when it hit her on her arm.  
  
Inu-Yasha paled and ran over to her. "I'm sorry, Kagome," he apologized. "Quit cryin,' okay?"  
  
Dropping to her knees, Kagome quieted to whimpers as large, sloppy tears continued to pour over her eyelids. Feeling uncomfortable with the pitiful look she was giving him, he scowled and said, "It did'n hurts that bad. Quit bein' such a baby."  
  
Startled, Kagome fell completely silent except for the occasional hiccup as she stared at him in disbelief. Quit being such a baby? Why was he being so mean? Her arm really did hurt, but he didn't even care. She burst into sobs.  
  
"Ah!" Inu-Yasha cried, kneeling before her. "Kagome! Kagome! Stop that!"  
  
"Inash doesn't like me!" she wailed mournfully. "Inash hates me!"  
  
"No. No," he mumbled, trying to think of some way to cheer her up.  
  
Kagome leaned forward, grasping his shirt in her little hands, and cried into his chest. "Inash doesn't love Kaka!" she blubbered.  
  
"No. No," he repeated, hugging her to him as he realized how to make her stop crying. "Inu-Yasha love Kagome very much."  
  
"Kaka loves Inash, too," she sobbed against him as she wiped her nose on his clothes.  
  
Eventually she stopped crying and all that remained were puffy, red eyes, a runny nose, and hiccups.  
  
~~~~~  
  
Present:  
  
After parenting had ended, Miroku and Kagome made their way to the cafeteria as quickly as they and found Sango sitting at the lunch table alone.  
  
"Where's everyone else?" Kagome asked her. Since it had only been less than a week since they had first met, she and Sango weren't really close, but Kagome considered her to be her best new friend anyway.  
  
"Inu-Yasha's in the line, and I think Kiki is sick with the flu or something," Sango informed the two, looking up from her notebook.  
  
"I'll join Inu-Yasha in the line, then," Miroku said. "Don't miss me too much, Kagome."  
  
Rolling her eyes at his retreating back, Kagome took a seat beside Sango. "He just wants to cut in the line, I bet." Then, looking over Sango's shoulder, she asked, "What are you writing?"  
  
"Oh," Sango said, closing the notebook. "Nothing. I was just trying to look like I was doing something."  
  
Kagome laughed, but doing so made her head hurt. "Oh! I just remembered!" she began. "Miroku and I were in parenting, right? Well, I go to sit down in my chair, and he had his hand there, but I didn't know it, so I sat on it, and he squeezed. I screamed and jumped up. Because of that perverted moron, I banged my thigh and my head all in one class period!"  
  
"Wow!" Sango said, sympathetically. "Do you have a bruise?"  
  
"I don't know," Kagome said. Taking a quick peek around her to check for any peeping Mirokus, she lifted her skirt up enough to see that a large purple bruise had formed. "Oh, great," she gmumbled.  
  
"That looks pretty painful," Sango said, casually eyeing the spot.  
  
"It hurts, too!" Kagome moaned. "Especially when I poke it like this!" She poked the bruise with her index finger. "Ow!"  
  
Sango laughed and said jokingly, "Then don't poke it, stupid!"  
  
"Poke what?" someone behind Kagome asked.  
  
Kagome looked over her shoulder and up into Inu-Yasha's face. Holding his lunch tray, he was leaning over the back of her chair a little to see for himself what was so interesting. Seeing how high she had her skirt up, he raised his eyebrows in a somewhat indecipherable expression. Kagome yanked her skirt back down as her face turned an embarrassing shade of red.  
  
"Don't look at me, you nasty!"  
  
"What? You're the one hiking your skirt up so everyone can see!" Inu- Yasha protested, then he smirked. "This morning you must have meant that you love being a crack whore."  
  
"Shut up! Shut up!" Kagome hissed, turning beat red. If Inu-Yasha kept talking about these things in the cafeteria, dirty rumors about her were sure to spread.  
  
Perhaps Inu-Yasha realized this, or perhaps he didn't, but he decided that was enough and sat down across from her with a delighted expression. He'd gotten her! He knew her weak spot!  
  
"Where's Miroku?" Sango asked. "Didn't he cut in line to where you were?"  
  
The smirk returning to his face, Inu-Yasha said, "Well, I'm sure he tried his hardest, but a 'lunch official' or whatever the hell the school calls them caught him."  
  
"What does that mean?" Kagome queried.  
  
Suppressing a snicker, Sango explained, "It means he gets time out."  
  
"Time out? In high school?"  
  
"Yeah," Sango smiled and rolled her eyes, "but cutting is a childish thing to do, so a childish punishment seems like a good solution, I guess."  
  
Kagome internally debated whether she thought that retribution was very good or not as she watched Miroku, who was sitting in the middle of the cafeteria at a tall round table, puffing his cheeks and rolling his eyes around at the back of the head of his rather portly jail-keeper.  
  
"Bad for the teachers," Kagome decided with a giggle. "Good for the students."  
  
****  
  
When it was finally the last period of the day, Kagome sat in her usual seat by the window and waited for Sango to arrive. Kagome had discovered that Inu-Yasha didn't come till the last second before the late bell for class rang, and she guessed that he had only been in the room early on her first day so he could save her a seat.  
  
"One period to go!" Sango greeted, sitting in the desk beside Kagome.  
  
"Finally," she said with a large smile. "Oh, yeah! I forgot to ask you earlier what you do for fun on Friday nights."  
  
"Well, tonight is a football game. It's usually one every Friday, and they're really fun, and you can meet tons of people. You should go."  
  
"Okay," Kagome said exuberantly. "Can I meet up with you somewhere? I might get lost trying to find you otherwise," she explained.  
  
"Yeah. Meet with me at the concession stands at six. That's a half hour before the game starts, and it might get cold, so bring a blanket or something," Sango advised.  
  
"Okay. You don't mind, do you?" Kagome asked, worried that she might be agitating her friend.  
  
"Not at all!" Sango said, surprised. "Why would I mind?"  
  
"I mean, I know you have other friends that you want to hang out with and everything, and I want you to know I appreciate your help," she told her sheepishly.  
  
"It's not a big deal, Kagome. It used to be just Miroku, Inu-Yasha, Kiki, and me, so that makes you one of my only girl friends."  
  
"Oh," Kagome said as the late bell for class rang and the teacher began talking.  
  
During her conversation with Sango, Kagome hadn't noticed that Inu- Yasha had come into the classroom and taken his seat behind her. She could hear him marking on the desk with his pencil, as he tended to do in the final hour of school.  
  
Despite Kagome's interest in the topic of music and dance, humanities crept by as slowly as a turtle freezing in a snowstorm. Four minutes until the final bell, the teacher allowed the students to talk at a reasonable volume after everyone was done with the assignment.  
  
Kagome turned in her seat, so she could face Sango and easily turn her head to talk to Inu-Yasha if he felt like joining the conversation. "Okay, my bruise is really starting to hurt, and I haven't even been poking it."  
  
"It's just a bruise," Inu-Yasha said. "Don't be a wimp."  
  
"It's not just a bruise," Kagome pouted. "It really hurts."  
  
"Yeah, I bet," Inu-Yasha snorted.  
  
"Kiss it, and make it better?" she asked with pleading eyes.  
  
"No, I think Miroku will do it for free." He laughed, thrilled with himself that he hadn't stuttered at her unexpected retort. "A crack whore who has to pay others to make her a whore!"  
  
Sango laughed quietly as Kagome told Inu-Yasha to shut up.  
  
  
  
  
  
Author's Note:  
  
I'm going to take this space to explain why Kagome has been a little shy at school. In the manga and anime, she doesn't seem to be a shy character at all. I think that in some ways, Kagome is shy, but she doesn't feel confined in the past. She cares what happens to the people there, and she cares about her friends, but she doesn't care how people there view her because it's not where she has to live. At home, she has her reputation to worry about, and she doesn't want to seem like a rude person to the people she thinks she will be with the rest of her life. In the past, she could be there for any length of time, and she really lets her temper get the better of her there. I don't know if you would consider my ideas to be out of character, but this is just an idea with some minor supporting facts. In reality, no one knows characters of any anime, manga, movie, or book with the exception of their creator(s). That's just my opinion though.  
  
The next chapter is going to be fun! Several more of the characters you all know and love are going to join the fanfic and in a most amusing way, I might add. I thought of it during school today, and I think this is an awesome way for them to be portrayed. Anyway, I'll have that chapter up as soon as possible, so keep an eye out if you care!  
  
Recently updated: Unfortunate Triangle Chapter 4 I Hate Her, She Hates Me  
  
Recently posted: Careless Love Chapter One  
  
P.S.  
  
I really appreciate the reviews I've gotten! You guys are so great, and I hope you continue to read this fanfic. I hope you guys are having as much fun reading it as I am writing it. ^.^ 


	7. Football Fun

Disclaimer: Inu-Yasha is not mine, and though this saddens me, I take comfort that this fanfic is entirely my creation. Huzzah.  
Past and Present Intertwine  
  
Chapter Seven- Football Fun  
  
Pushing up her window and leaning out of it just enough to approximate how cold it was that Friday night, Kagome came to the conclusion that she would put on a pair of jeans in place of the skirt she would have worn otherwise. In a short while she would be meeting Sango for the weekly home football game, which was to be Kagome's first social event at her new school.  
  
"Mom," Kagome called over the banister down to the first floor. "I need a blanket for the game tonight. Sango said I should bring one."  
  
After her mother had consented to finding a suitable blanket, Kagome hurried into the bathroom to attend to any last-minute embellishes of her person. She found none but fluffed her hair a bit to make herself feel better. As she tied her shoelaces at the foot of the stairs, her mother handed her a blanket.  
  
"Thanks, Mom," Kagome said quickly, feeling as though talking faster would have her out the door sooner.  
  
"Have you eaten dinner?" Mrs. Higurashi asked.  
  
"No. I'm not hungry."  
  
"Do you have money if you get hungry?" she checked.  
  
"Yeah. I'll be fine."  
  
"Be careful, honey. Don't leave with anyone you don't know," she advised, putting a concerned hand on her daughter's shoulder.  
  
Thinking momentarily that she wouldn't even leave with Miroku, whom she did know, Kagome nodded and gave a typical, "I know, Mom."  
  
Gathering the neatly folded blanket in her arms, Kagome left the house with a short goodbye to her mother. It was a cool evening, so she jogged the entire way to school. The ticket line was short, so it didn't take long for her to gain admittance. Despite her best efforts of haste, Sango was already there at the concession stands, looking as though she had waited long enough to become fairly bored. However, she did smile when she saw Kagome approaching.  
  
"Sorry," Kagome panted in greeting. "I came as fast as I could. Really."  
  
"Don't worry about it. I'll show you where we usually sit. The guys will be here a little after the game starts. They don't like to seem too interested in school events, you know."  
  
Kagome grinned and followed Sango past the concession stands, through a door, and up a flight of stairs to the school bleachers where they sat at the left end of the front rows. The stands were over ten feet above the field, which was geometrically lined every few yards with white paint across to the other side where the away team's bleachers were. Kagome felt glad she wasn't sitting in those stands; they looked rather depleted and cold compared the one's she viewed the others from. Taller and more spacious, the school's bleachers were made of firm smooth concrete painted in the school colors of blue and silver and embellished with balloons of the same hues along the stair rails. Looking around, Kagome saw that she and Sango were of the first fifty or so to arrive.  
  
"When does the game start?" Kagome asked after taking in her surroundings.  
  
"Oh, it's supposed to start at 7:30, but that's actually when they do their warm-ups, and those don't take very long. They play cool music while they do them, so we can sing and dance if nothing else," Sango said.  
  
Kagome wanted to know more about Sango, and they hadn't really had a chance to have any actual girl talk during school. Now seemed as good a time as any to spark the desired conversation. "What kind of music do you like?"  
  
"Up-beat stuff, really. I don't really like sad songs, but they're okay once in a while when I'm in the mood for them. Techno and pop and stuff just make me want to dance, you know? What about you?"  
  
"I like a little bit of everything, I guess. Usually I just listen to whatever is on the radio. What about movies? Do you have a favorite genre?"  
  
"Action and drama, but I like a movie with both in it."  
  
"Me, too. That's why I adore 'Lord of the Rings.' Those movies have everything."  
  
"Oh, me, too! Me, too!" Sango grinned. "Let's watch them together some time! No one else will watch them with me: Kiki can't sit still that long, and Inu-Yasha and Miroku always go on about how hot Arwen is and all. That's all guys ever talk about, how hot some girl is. I hate watching movies with them."  
  
Kagome laughed. "I know what you mean! At my old school the guys were always going on about some cute actress. When we had to watch a live birth video in school, they all thought it was going to be like porn or something and were all excited about it, but when they saw a front view of the baby's head coming out, every single guy in my class was grossed out!"  
  
"Ew!" Sango sniggered. "They showed a video like that to the middle school, and Inu-Yasha and Miroku wouldn't look at me for a week! Isn't that stupid? It's not like it was my crotch and baby on the TV screen!"  
  
They each howled with laughter, but behind her amused face, Kagome felt a twinge of loneliness as she realized how long the others had known each other and been friends. She didn't have that. She and Inu-Yasha had been childhood friends, yes, but those memories were distant and mostly forgotten. The years of middle school and early high school are some of the most adventurous years of youth, and though she had her own, she didn't have anyone to share them with. She ached for that bond of familiarity.  
  
"It's getting cold up here," Sango announced as their laughter died down to occasional chuckles. "Let's share the blanket."  
  
They unfolded and wrapped it around their shoulders.  
  
"So," Kagome said in the safety of the dark blue cover, "who in this school is cute?"  
  
"That depends on your preference," Sango said with a growing smile.  
  
"Well," Kagome began after thinking for a moment, "I like guys who're taller than me with blue eyes. I like blue eyes," she emphasized.  
  
"I agree with you about the height, but personally, I go for the dark eyes, dark hair look. I don't like huge muscles either."  
  
"Wimpy guys for you, huh?" Kagome giggled. "I want my guy to have strong arms, the kind that I can feel safe in but not weak in, you know?"  
  
"Right," Sango understood.  
  
Each paused their tongues for a moment as they looked wistfully out over the field. During their conversation, each set of bleachers had been filling up, and the opposing football teams were beginning to warm-up.  
  
"Hi, Sango!" a boy called from higher in the stands.  
  
Breaking away from her thoughts, Sango turned around and waved to him. "Hi, Yahiko!"  
  
"Who's your friend?" Yahiko asked. He was a boy with a round face, large eyes, and coarse black hair and eyebrows.  
  
"This is Kagome! She's new!"  
  
Kagome, who had been following the exchange of shouts, now put on a becoming smile and waved to Yahiko.  
  
"Who's he?" she asked Sango as they both turned to face the field again.  
  
"That's Yahiko. He's pretty smart. His little brother is a friend of my little brother," she explained. "See those guys beside him?"  
  
Turning back around to look up at Yahiko and his group more carefully, Kagome nodded.  
  
"From left to right that's Tatsuya, Markus -he's a foreign exchange student from Britain- Rei, Hojou, and Kuwabara. They're all pretty nice, but Kuwabara's one to watch out for. He used to be in a gang, and he got suspended for breaking some guy's nose two years ago."  
  
"What made him change?" Kagome asked with interest.  
  
"Not sure. I heard his mom and sister cracked down on him really hard and sent him to live in Mexico with his dad. I don't believe that, though," Sango said doubtfully. "Kuwabara doesn't know any Spanish, and if he ever lived in Mexico, he would at least know 'hola.' Even someone who hasn't been knows that."  
  
At that moment an announcer blared from the speakers, stating that the game would start in ten minutes. Then he continued the warm-up music, which Kagome hadn't noticed had been playing till then.  
  
"Hey, what school are we playing against anyway?" Kagome finally asked.  
  
"North Creek. I don't like they're school colors at all. Wouldn't you hate to have a brown uniform?"  
  
"Yeah," Kagome agreed, her eyes traveling to each player one by one. "Oh! Look at how short Player number ten is!"  
  
Sango laughed. "I think that's Kino. I don't know him very well, but he does seem a little too little for football."  
  
"Hey!" came an interrupting yell from the other side of Sango. It was Inu-Yasha with Miroku behind him, and aside from slightly baggy jeans and a snug white shirt, he wore an irate expression. "You!" he shouted, jabbing his finger past Sango and to Kagome. "Where the hell have you been?"  
  
"Here," Kagome answered in a tone of puzzlement. "Why?"  
  
"I was over at your house to pick you up to walk you over here, and you weren't even there! You didn't tell me you were coming with Sango!"  
  
"And you didn't tell me that you were picking me up," Kagome said, looking at him as if he were stupid.  
  
"Yes, I did!"  
  
"No, you didn't!"  
  
"Yes, I-"  
  
"Quit being such a baby, Inu-Yasha. Just move. I'm going to sit by Kagome," Miroku said.  
  
"No, you're not!" Kagome snubbed. "Not after what you did in parenting class today."  
  
"Oh, you remember that, huh?"  
  
"Of course! It hasn't even been five hours."  
  
"Oh, right," Miroku said. "It just feels like it's been forever since we were last together, sweet Kagome."  
  
Kagome rolled her eyes and laughed, and thinking that this was an invitation, Miroku started moving past Inu-Yasha.  
  
"Nice try," Inu-Yasha said, sitting down beside Sango and yanking Miroku down next to him.  
  
"The game's starting," Sango said, pointing to the field.  
  
The first quarter passed rather slowly and ended with a tie of eleven to eleven.  
  
At this point Sango turned to Kagome and said, "I have to go, but I'll be back after half time. Cheer for me, okay?"  
  
Kagome wanted to ask what she meant by that, but Sango was already gone.  
  
"Hey, Kagome, you look lonely over there without Sango. Would you like me to sit by you to keep you company?" Miroku asked, eagerly leaning forward to look past Inu-Yasha.  
  
"Will you shut up already?" Inu-Yasha grumbled, yanking Miroku back by his ponytail.  
  
Miroku did shut up, but five minutes after the second quarter had begun, he tried to jump past Inu-Yasha and failed miserably when the latter tripped him with an outstretched leg.  
  
"Damn it, Inu-Yasha, give me a break! I don't want to sit by you the whole time," he argued.  
  
"You wouldn't have to if you kept your hands to yourself," Inu-Yasha said. He would have seemed mature for his supported justifications and preventative actions if his friend hadn't so perceptibly annoyed him.  
  
Kagome realized that she looked as if she was sitting alone; therefore, she did whatever she could to look occupied. As she listened to their argument, she pretended to be deeply involved with watching the game.  
  
"Miroku, if you don't stop it-" Inu-Yasha barked as the addressed boy launched another futile attempt to pass him. At the last moment Inu-Yasha scooted up against Kagome, causing Miroku to fall forward into the row in front of them, which, fortunately for him, was a long line of cheerleaders.  
  
As Miroku made flattering apologies to those he had accidentally planted his hands upon, Kagome was turning red after realizing that Inu- Yasha's entire side was pressed up against hers.  
  
"What-" she began, "what are you doing?"  
  
Inu-Yasha, who had been shoving his foot up Miroku's butt in order to make him jump thus popping him off the cheerleaders, looked over at her. "Huh?"  
  
"Get off me already!" Kagome shouted, flushing in complete embarrassment.  
  
"Oh," Inu-Yasha said, immediately scooting away from her and flushing a bit himself. He periodically looked over to her to see that she was completely intent on the game. "I didn't know you liked football so much."  
  
"I don't. I think it's barbaric," she replied awkwardly.  
  
"Okay."  
  
Little was said the rest of the quarter. Even Miroku was fairly silent, but this was probably because he was looking forlornly at the cheerleaders and Kagome between football plays.  
  
When half time came, Miroku offered to get them some drinks and snacks, and Inu-Yasha went with him to help him carry it all. Kagome's mission was to save their place, but she felt incredibly stupid doing so. Without the football team to keep her attention, she watched the cheerleaders do a few cheers with the school mascot, a kid in a big goofy- looking wolf suit, mimicking their moves. She was relieved at the boys' speedy return.  
  
"What's going on?" Miroku asked excitedly, sitting next to Inu-Yasha and passing a drink and bag of nuts over to Kagome.  
  
Sipping at her beverage, which she discovered to be an odd mixture of sodas that gave her mouth, throat, and stomach a nauseous sensation, she answered, "Not much. The cheerleaders just finished with their routine."  
  
"Yes!" Miroku said, beaming. "The dance team is coming up next then."  
  
The announcer said the same thing a few seconds later.  
  
A small group of girls walked out onto the field and found their positions as the music tape was tested.  
  
"Who are they?" Kagome asked.  
  
Inu-Yasha didn't know, but that was fine because Miroku knew them all. "That's Lina, Momiji, and the tall girl is Mamoko. In the first line is Miki, Tamiya, Fuu, and there is Sango."  
  
"Really? I didn't recognize her at first since her hair is in a ponytail. I didn't know she was on the dance team. Why didn't she tell me? That must be why she told me to cheer for her," Kagome realized in a rush, munching on a cashew.  
  
Given the go, the team began its dance. They were all pretty good with the exception of Tamiya, who was rather chubby and ungraceful (Miroku liked her well enough though he didn't admit this partiality was due to her substantial chest). To Kagome and Inu-Yasha, Sango was one of the best and had terrific timing, and Miroku gave her credit for having a nice figure. Halfway through the song, the two rows of girls melded to become one then circled forward over the sideline and toward the bleachers, but then they were out of eyesight, leading the crowd to believe that the performance was over. However, they circled back onto the field, and now each of them was holding a baton. Sango, who had been at the very end of the front line, now danced to the center carrying a baton larger than the others. The dance team danced as well as twirled their batons to the music, and the crowd cheered when they were done.  
  
Remembering Sango's request, Kagome clapped and whistled as loud as she could as the dance team made their exit and the school marching band made its way onto the field. When Sango returned to the bleachers a few minutes later, she sat down beside Kagome, who was enthusiastically and sincerely praising her.  
  
"You were so awesome out there! It was like you all were totally professional looking. You guys have the cutest outfits, and the music was really awesome, and the baton thing was a complete surprise to me! Do you do that for every performance?"  
  
"No, just sometimes," Sango said, smiling.  
  
"Sango," Miroku said. "You looked so gorgeous out there. It made me realize how much I care about you."  
  
"Stuff it, Miroku," Sango said, her breath turning to fog before her.  
  
"Do you want to share the blanket, Sango?" Kagome offered.  
  
Both girls ignored Miroku's, "I do!" as Sango replied, "No, thanks. Performing got my blood running."  
  
"Are you cold, Inu-Yasha?" Kagome asked.  
  
"Uh...kind of," he admitted. Before he could say anything else, she tossed some of the blanket to him. "Thanks," he said, scooting closer to her in order to have more cover.  
  
~~~~~  
  
Kagome: Three years old Inu-Yasha: Four and a half years old  
  
It was April, and living up to its reputation for showers, it was pouring outside. Inu-Yasha was over at Kagome's house for the afternoon, and the two of them were very bored.  
  
"We can pay puzzle," Kagome suggested. "This is Kaka's favit puzzle cuss it has stars. See?"  
  
"I don't wan' play that," Inu-Yasha said grumpily, ignoring the stars and staring out the window.  
  
Kagome lowered her head and thought for a moment before exclaiming, "Kaka knows! Kaka got a radyo. Inash want to sing?"  
  
"No," he pouted. He was even too depressed to tell her to quit calling him 'Inash.'  
  
"Oh," Kagome said sympathetically. "Can you not sing, Inash?"  
  
"What? I can sing!" Inu-Yasha proclaimed defiantly. "I can do anything."  
  
"Then sing!" Kagome cried, clapping her hands together and bouncing up and down.  
  
"I said I could sing. I didn't say I wanted to."  
  
"Oh, Inash. Inash, don't be mean. Peas sing for Kaka. Just a little, okay?"  
  
Inu-Yasha finally consented, and the two of them migrated up to Kagome's room where the 'radyo' was. It was a toy radio decorated with flowers and balloons. Attached to it was a mini-microphone.  
  
The very sight of it appalled Inu-Yasha. "I don't want to sing with this!"  
  
Kagome furrowed her brows when she saw his reaction to her second most-prized toy. "If you can't say an-thin nice, no say nothing all," she said.  
  
"I don't wanna."  
  
"Then ima-gen that you like it. Then sing for Kaka."  
  
Inu-Yasha narrowed his eyes at the girly radio, and after a moment of deep concentration, a small sound emitted from the lower quarters of his back.  
  
"Inu-Yasha! Ex-coose you!" Kagome said mimicking the reaction her mother had given a week before when Kagome had cut loose a big fart in a fairly nice restaurant.  
  
Inu-Yasha laughed as Kagome pinched her nose.  
  
"Now sing awready!" Kagome implored once the air had cleared.  
  
"What are you gonna do?"  
  
"Uh... dance! Kaka dance for Inash while he sing!"  
  
After avoiding his solo for a few more minutes, Inu-Yasha finally relented and brought the pink, purple, and blue microphone to his mouth. He sang 'When the Saints Go Marching,' and Kagome danced. However, she didn't dance very well for Inu-Yasha could not sustain the melody and soon broke down into a fit of laughter.  
  
"Why you stop? Why you laugh?" Kagome demanded.  
  
"You- you can't dance, Kagome! You did this!" Inu-Yasha exaggerated her moves, flopping his arms all around as he jumped in circles.  
  
Kagome flushed from anger and embarrassment. "Inash is mean! Inash is mean!" she shouted.  
  
"I'm not mean! I'm telling the truth!"  
  
"Inash hurt Kaka's feelings," she yelled.  
  
"Then I'm sorry," he cried. "Be quiet already!"  
  
Perhaps Kagome was astonished that he had so easily given his apology or perhaps she wasn't really as angry as she seemed. Whatever her three- years-of-age reasoning was, she did become quiet as her best friend requested. They continued on as if nothing had occurred, as is all quarrelling toddlers way, and enjoyed themselves as much as they could confined in the house as they were.  
  
~~~~~  
  
Present:  
  
During the third quarter, the foursome started to pay more attention to the game. Both teams weren't without their offense and defense, and things were becoming more violent as the end of the game drew near. Every play Kagome would ask who was who, and Inu-Yasha and Sango supplied names for the numbers.  
  
"Oh! Number thirty-five on the other team just tackled Kino!" Kagome exclaimed. "Oh, my God. I think he's hurt!"  
  
Indeed he was, and a timeout was called as the coach and a crowd of parents ran out to check on the injured player. The coach and Player number fourteen, who, according to Sango, was the team captain and the quickest player, carried Kino off the field on a stretcher. The following day a rumor would begin to spread that he had broken his leg and might not be able to play for the rest of the season.  
  
The game resumed play once Kino was safely off the field, and the team captain sprinted back to his position as quarterback. When the ball was hiked back to Fourteen, Number thirty-five, still allowed in the game because the referee claimed the incident wasn't his fault, began to charge at him. Swiftly passing the ball twenty yards up to Number four, Number fourteen then turned his attention to Number thirty-five. He filled the distance between them with a short sprint and bashed into him. The two rammed against one another for a second before Number fourteen grabbed Thirty-five by the shoulder-pads and in an instant threw him to the ground where he lay with the wind knocked out of him. A foul was called with much confusion for nearly everyone had been watching Number four's run with the ball, which had scored a touchdown.  
  
Kagome was one of the few who saw the encounter between Fourteen and Thirty- five (she even saw Fourteen 'accidentally tread on Thirty-five's shin and ankle just before the referee reached him). Even though she thought the game barbaric, she couldn't help but want to cheer on the team captain for avenging Kino and boo at the referee for making a call against him. Forgetting they didn't want to seem too involved with school events, Miroku and Inu-Yasha were shouting profanities down to the referee, and Sango was soon screaming herself hoarse.  
  
The team captain argued and flung every offensive word he knew at the referee, but this only ended with him being forced off the field. Furious, he took off his helmet, exposing his long dark hair, and fiercely chucked it across the field. The crowd rooted for him along with the cheerleaders, who were doing a cheer they had made up themselves, which included the lines,  
  
"Stupid call!  
  
Referee with no balls!"  
  
,which didn't exactly rhyme, but it was the thought that counted above all else.  
  
Powered by their support, the team captain danced across the sideline and back and made obscene gestures at the referee when he wasn't looking. The wolf mascot soon joined in, and together they slapped their behinds and wriggled their hips, sparking roars of laughter from the crowd with their antics.  
  
Just as the coach finally made him sit down, the team captain looked up at the bleachers and smirked, making the cheerleaders giggle and blush.  
  
"What's his name?" Kagome asked.  
  
"Ryouga, I think," Sango said, plopping down angrily. "He's a complete moron in math class, but I could kiss him right now."  
  
"You can pretend I'm him if you want," Miroku suggested.  
  
"Kagome, may I please have your nuts?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
"Thank you." Sango twisted the plastic bag around the few nuts remaining at the bottom then reached past Inu-Yasha and whacked them down on top of Miroku's head. The bag burst, and nuts and salty crumbs leaped into the air and arched over the cheerleaders, who were enthusiastically chatting about Ryouga.  
  
Much to Kagome and Sango's delight, their team beat North Creek, but it had been a close game.  
  
"I want to come to next Friday's game, too," Kagome resolved as their group of four descended the steps. "The game was more fun than I thought it would be, but even if it wasn't, I would come just to support you, Sango. The dance team was so cool."  
  
"You know," Sango said as they stood in the parking lot beneath a light, "We don't have many dancers, so if you want, you can join the team. I'll teach you everything you need to know, and the fee isn't very big at all."  
  
Kagome said uncertainly with a nervous and excited smile, "Oh I don't know if I'd be any good."  
  
"You wouldn't," Inu-Yasha said simply. "You've never been able to dance."  
  
"What are you talking about?" Kagome angrily whirled around to face him.  
  
"Nothing."  
  
She glared at him for a moment before turning back to Sango. "Okay, I want to join."  
  
"Great!" Sango said. "We've been looking for more people, but no one wants to do the work. Oh, there's my ride, so what's your phone number?"  
  
Kagome rattled off her new number, which she had learned earlier that week in case anyone from school asked (Sango was to the first to receive it).  
  
"Great. I'll call you tomorrow, and we'll practice sometime this weekend, okay? 'Night, you guys," Sango called as she climbed into her dad's car.  
  
"Who just goes home after a football game on a Friday night?" Miroku asked, puzzled.  
  
"I do," Kagome said, feeling in such high spirits she thought she could waltz right up to cloud nine and do a jig.  
  
"We'll wait here with you until your mom comes then," Inu-Yasha said.  
  
"She's not coming. I'm walking home," she told him.  
  
"It's too late to walk home," he said. "It's not, you know, safe or anything."  
  
"Then I'll just pick out one of these big strong men to walk me home," Kagome joked.  
  
He ignored that. "Miroku, I'll meet up with you. I'm going to walk this ditz home," Inu-Yasha said, rolling his eyes.  
  
"Okay. Later," Miroku said offhandedly as some of the cheerleaders walked past him.  
  
"You don't need to walk me home," Kagome told Inu-Yasha as they made their way down the sidewalk along which were various groups of people who had just left the game as well. "This is a really clean neighborhood. It's not as if some guy is going to jump me."  
  
"Not one in his right mind anyway."  
  
Kagome playfully punched him on the arm. "If I didn't know you, you would totally break down my self-esteem with your mean jokes."  
  
"If I didn't know you, I wouldn't make jokes at you."  
  
"No, I meant if I didn't, you know, know you. Know you as a person, not stranger not kind of know you," she weakly explained.  
  
"Oh," Inu-Yasha said, nodding his comprehension.  
  
They were silent for a minute, Kagome watching her feet as they made each step and Inu-Yasha looking out for any people that might be dangerous.  
  
"So, um, where are you and Miroku going?"  
  
"That's a secret," he replied with a slight smirk.  
  
"Okay," Kagome said.  
  
Not much else was said until they were on her doorstep.  
  
"Thanks for walking me home," Kagome said awkwardly.  
  
"Oh, don't forget your blanket," he said, handing it to her.  
  
"And thanks for carrying my blanket," she added. "I guess I'll see you Monday?"  
  
"Maybe tomorrow."  
  
"What's tomorrow?"  
  
"Uh... I don't know. I just thought I'd come over."  
  
"Oh, okay. That would be fine."  
  
"Miroku's waiting for me, so I, uh, have to go," he said lamely.  
  
"Good night," she said as he turned and headed down the walkway. Without turning around, he raised his hand in farewell.  
  
If Kagome hadn't been eating a plate of noodles and imagining how fun it would be to be on the dance team, she might have felt very lonely when she heard a motorcycle revving up and peeling out of the driveway next door.  
  
Author's Note:  
  
04/20/03  
  
I feel so bad. I really do. Why? Because I made all my readers wait so long for the next chapter. I appreciate all your reviews, honestly, I do. It's not that they didn't motivate me. They made me supa happy, though. Keep them coming pretty please. ^.^  
  
As for why this chapter took so long, school's been a bitch lately, and stuff has just been going on, so I didn't feel inspired to write this chapter until the time I should be the busiest in the spring: EASTER!  
  
Happy Easter to everyone! For each person who reads this chapter, I have for you a chocolate bunny! Aren't those the best? I don't have one this year, but that's okay. I have a chocolate egg. It has a pretty violet on it and my name as well. It's so pretty that I almost don't want to eat it, but shoo, I will anyway. I hope this chapter was fun to read! It was fun to write. Heehee  
  
I have a funny Easter story for all of you! My mom and I were at the candy shop yesterday getting Easter candy. Yum. So we're picking out some delectable munchies, right? Well, all of the sudden, this guy comes into the store and screams, "BIIIIIIIIIITTTTTCCCCHHHH!!!!" The candy store isn't in a bad neighborhood or anything, but I thought we were going to get shot at. I was looking for something to duck behind. Turns out that the guy (he happened to be missing one of his front teeth) was just joking and had had too many cups of coffee. I was like, "Woah now. You know you've had too much coffee when you go around screaming like you have Tourette's syndrome!" Cripes.  
  
04/21/03  
  
Okay, how stupid is this? I get this chapter typed up, and I'm all excited and happy and everything, right? Well, would you believe it, as I'm halfway though editing, tornado sirens go off. I'm like, "Excuse me? 1) It is Easter. 2) I'm sort of busy. Come back when I'm asleep." It didn't work out that way because the tornado was like, "I hate you, too." Fortunately for my town and me, it has a Ryouga-type problem and couldn't find its way. It actually passed right above my town, though. Haha Take that, you big thing of, um, wind.  
  
Anyway, I didn't have enough time to finish editing and all once I could get on the computer again last night after I waited for about four hours during which the clouds decided to rain and thunder and hail. I swear that hail was about as big as my eye. This big: O (only bigger)!  
  
At school I tried to think of any improvements, but I had muchas bunches Spanish and stuff to do, so my mind could not linger on that for very long.  
  
After school as I was walking to the library where my mom picks me up (me no car in which to drive own ass home in ;.;), and as I'm walking, talking with my friends and looking at the, all of a sudden I come upon a HUGE bumblebee right at my feet that I didn't see because one of my friends was all up in my way with her big shoe. I was like, "SCREAM!" for I suddenly pictured the bee buzzing up my pants and stinging me in the crotch. So I ran around and away from it. This has nothing to do with anything, but I thought it was kind of funny, and if you thought so, too, then that makes me happy.  
  
Anyway, I worked on this chapter after I got home from school, but then I had to watch Yu Yu Hakusho and Rurouni Kenshin, so after that I really finished, and now here I am. TADAAAAA! It was all very difficult, but I have accomplished everything I wanted to for this chapter. HUZZAH! 


	8. Dance Lesson and Verifications

Disclaimer: If Inu-Yasha were mine, I don't think I would go to school. Okay, I might go a couple times just to laugh at some of the people that were ever mean or something to me, but after that I think I would just not go, and if I ever needed to be smart, well, then I would get a machine to tell me all the answers in my ear or something. For bonus coolness I'd make it in the shape of Myouga. Yeah! Anyway, this story is mine, but the characters are not. Kiki and a couple others are, but you can take them and flush them down a toilet for all I care. That, or feed them to that mighty ass huge bumblebee that stalks me after school. Actually, it's probably dead by now. It's been, what, six months since I saw the little demon last? Mm-hm, I would say he's pretty dead. He might even be done beecomposing. Haha! Beecomposing! Get it? .... My dad is rubbing off on me is all I can say.  
  
Past and Present Intertwine  
  
Chapter Eight- Dance Lesson and Verifications  
  
"Kagome! Kagome, telephone!"  
  
Her ears picking up the call of her name and the object she'd been longing to hear ring all morning, Kagome scrambled off the floor, through the doorway, down the hall and stairs, and into the living rooms where she then pounced onto the couch next to which was a small table where the phone and its neighboring lamp and a few home decorating and garden magazines took to setting and gathering dust. As she gasped for breath from excitement and her aforesaid scramble, she grabbed for the receiver and, in a shaking voice, greeted whoever was on the other end of the line with a simple and expectant 'hello.' She was thrilled to hear that the unknown who was the particular 'who' she had hoped and anticipated it was.  
  
"Sango! Morning! I'm glad you called," she understated. She bit her lip while she listened to what her friend of nearly one week told her. "Right now if you want."  
  
The phone cord was quickly becoming tangled about her nervous fingers as she listened anxiously to Sango's response. Luckily for Kagome it was the answer she wanted to hear.  
  
"Excellent! You can have lunch over here, too, if you want. I'm sure we have something to eat." She laughed joyously. "Okay. See you in a few."  
  
Kagome set the phone back on its receiver with a satisfied grin spread across her face. This was going to be so fun! Her new friend was coming over to teach her dance... stuff. Well, she was quite certain it would be something the two of them could have in common.  
  
By the time Kagome was finished shoving the rest of her unpacked boxes against her bedroom walls in an effort to attain maximum dancing area (a simple matter of calculus, I'm sure *barf*), Sango had arrived and was ringing the doorbell. Kagome could hear the exchange of polite greetings between Sango and her mother, and then Mrs. Higurashi informed Sango of her daughter's whereabouts while Souta waved and said hello to their guest.  
  
Sango was now climbing the stairs. "Kagome? Where are you?"  
  
"The second room on the left," came the reply.  
  
Sango knocked on the door uncertainly. "This one?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
Sango opened the door to find Kagome looking surprised and amazed on the other side. "What are you doing?"  
  
"I've been moving boxes. That one' -she indicated which one- 'was blocking the door, and I couldn't get it to move, but you just opened the door like nothing was there. You're really strong."  
  
The grin on the face of the praised following this admiring statement held hints of embarrassment and pride, but Sango hurriedly moved on to the business at hand, closing the door behind her and sliding her backpack, which looked very full, off her shoulders. She pulled a CD from it and handed it to Kagome.  
  
"This CD has most of the music we've been practicing with lately. We try to stay open-minded about the music we use, but generally we stick to 80s and early 90s because no one is really interested in finding new songs and making choreography for them. It's kind of risky anyway because you don't know if anyone will like it, but that's not important right now. Being on the dance team is a lot of work since it's a year-round thing, but we have tons of fun, and the exercise is good and all," Sango finished with a small wave of her hand.  
  
"Cool, but, um..." Kagome mumbled. "I still haven't unpacked my radio, and I have no idea which box it's in."  
  
"Oh, no worries. I brought my own." Sango pulled a radio out of her backpack, making it look considerably limp and empty.  
  
"Ah, Sango... you are very strong." Kagome's eyes sparkled with admiration.  
  
"Stop it already. You're making me blush," Sango laughed, pushing aside different boxes in search of an outlet. "Where can I plug the player in?"  
  
Pondering this for a moment, Kagome replied slowly, "I think it's behind this one." She tapped a box along side the wall opposite from her bed.  
  
"Yeah, I see it. Let's plug this puppy in." The puppy was then plugged, which I'm sure sounds extremely hentai to those of us with a perverted sense of humor, and Sango popped the CD in and moved to song number eight. "This isn't a recent song, but everyone at school likes it. Plus, the boys like the outfits we wear for it."  
  
"Huh? What do you mean?"  
  
The radio provided the answer to Kagome's query.  
  
'I wanna girl with  
  
Fast and thorough  
  
I wanna girl who  
  
Sharp as a tack  
  
I wanna girl with  
  
Eyes that burn like cigarettes'  
  
Even though the song had been mixed up and was given a different beat in order to make it peppier to dance to, it was still distinct to Kagome's ears.  
  
'I wanna girl with a short skirt  
  
And a loooooong jacket'  
  
"Oh, I know this song, and yeah, I'm sure the boys do like it."  
  
They both laughed wickedly.  
  
"So where do we start?"  
  
"I'll show you our routine for this song. None of it's, you know, really difficult, but it is hard to memorize everything. Okay, this is how it goes. Don't laugh, please," Sango said with a small blush.  
  
"Of course I won't laugh! Why would you think I would laugh?"  
  
"This dance gets a bit... racy, kind of," she explained bluntly.  
  
"Oh," Kagome said. "Well, I'll try not to laugh."  
  
"Here goes then. Back up a little bit. I don't want to kick you or anything."  
  
As Sango took position, Kagome restarted the song. As the former set off into the routine she knew so well, the latter watched with her stomach lolling about nervously. The dance was indeed racy, and she didn't know if she could do it, much less if she could do it in front of her peers.  
  
"Sango can at least make it look cool. What would I like?" she wondered self-consciously.  
  
By the time Sango and the song-o (haha, they sound the same) had finished, Kagome's poor head was filled and beginning to cramp with doubts. Being a member of her schools' dance teams since middle school and having helped several girls with their anxieties, Sango easily detected the worry of her friend.  
  
"Listen, don't worry about how you look. All that really matters is how into the music and the dancing you are. If you really like something, it shows, and it's cool. But if you're just going along without any enthusiasm or heart, that's when you look stupid," she reasoned calmly.  
  
"Wow, Sango!" said Kagome, instantly reassured. "Not only are you super strong, but you give excellent advice! Are you this good with boy problems?"  
  
Sango, who had been trying to look modest, perked her ears at the query. "Kagome," she began slyly. "Are you having boy problems?"  
  
"What?" Kagome peeped, a tinge of pink staining her cheeks. "No, not at the moment, but it's useful to know who I can go to if I need help."  
  
"Oh," Sango said with a bit of disappointment. "Well, it's fine if you want to talk to me about something, but I don't know how helpful I can be about boy troubles. Miroku's the one who's really good at that."  
  
"Miroku?!" Kagome gave her an incredulous look. "I know he's a guy, but I thought he was too, uh..."  
  
"Perverted?" Sango supplied.  
  
"Yeah. I thought he was too perverted for anything that has to do with feelings."  
  
"Believe you me, I don't get it either," Sango sighed. Despite her annoyance, a smile tugged at the sides of her mouth.  
  
"Let's see if I'm dance team material, huh?" Kagome asked, a determined smile set across her face.  
  
"Okay," Sango said, springing up to stand beside Kagome, who was preparing by sweeping her hair away from her face. "For your sake I hope you are worthy to be a member, cuz honey, if you're not, you can bet you won't see me 'round here eva again." She snapped her fingers for further humorous effect.  
  
Kagome's face fell and her lip quivered.  
  
"Oh! Oh, it's okay," Sango comforted hastily, placing a pacifying hand on the other girl's shoulder. "I don't care if you're bad or not. We'll still be friends. I was only joking."  
  
"Me, too," Kagome said wickedly, flashing a large smile.  
  
"Oh," Sango said with relief.  
  
After another fit of laughter, they finally started to work on the routine.  
  
~~~~~  
  
Kagome: Three years old Inu-Yasha: Four and a half years old  
  
"Kaka and Inash are at the carnival!" Kagome squealed. "Kaka and Inash are gon' have fun! Kaka and Inash-"  
  
"Are gonna split up if you don' quit yellin' in my ear!" Inu-Yasha interrupted waspishly.  
  
"Kaka is sorry, Inash," she said. Because she was taking in the sights of the rides, stands, and games all around them, Kagome's apology had an offhanded tone and was, therefore, not good enough to diminish the agitation of our young hero.  
  
"And let go of my hand!" he grumbled, wrenching his from hers.  
  
"Okay, Inash. Oh, look! Car-mel apples!" she cried excitedly, running to her mother's side and tugging beseechingly at her skirt.  
  
Growling, Inu-Yasha squatted down where he stood in frustration and in the aforementioned agitation. What was bothering this young tot? Well, just a week ago, Kagome had obeyed his every whim (well, most of them, anyway) and cried whenever he was mean to her. Now a week later she didn't cry when he yelled or anything. It was quite obvious to him that she didn't care about him anymore!  
  
"Stupid Kagome," Inu-Yasha muttered viciously under his breath.  
  
"Inash! Do you want car-mel apple?" the ignorant and insulted one called from three or four stands away, a considerable distance for an infant.  
  
"No!" he shouted.  
  
"He wants one, too, please," he heard her tell the caramel-apple-man.  
  
Ugh! Now she wasn't listening to him at all! He was hungry, though... He ate the caramel apple without an excessive amount of fuss.  
  
"Inash! Inash! Look! A game!" Kagome cried, pointing enthusiastically to the opposite row of stands.  
  
Extremely angry, Inu-Yasha stomped after his stupid-excitedly- skipping-over-to-some-stupid-game-stand-used-to-be friend, who was stupid.  
  
"Look! See? You hava take ona those balls, and then you gotta hit that monkey really, really, hard, and then you get a prize! Do you wanna play?"  
  
"Sure," he snapped, an idea forming in his mind (hard to believe, I know). He shoved his hand into his pocket, took out some money, huffily counted the needed amount, which took him a bit because he isn't much for math in the first place, paid the game-stand-man, and then grabbed one of the large, yellow balls.  
  
"Yay, Inash!"  
  
Inu-Yasha glowered at her.  
  
"See that?" he asked, jabbing his finger at the monkey.  
  
"Yeah! Yeah!"  
  
"That's you." He jabbed his finger at her. "Watch."  
  
Then he hauled off and popped that sucker of a monkey square in his face on the first throw (more like an assault, really), making the siren on his little monkey hat start to wail. Inu-Yasha won a decently made teddy bear with a sweet blue bow tied around his neck.  
  
"Wow, Inash! Good job! What a great bear!" Kagome congratulated.  
  
"If it's so stupid great, then you can have it!" Inu-Yasha shouted, flinging it at her.  
  
Having just seen what Inu-Yasha could do by throwing something at another something's face, Kagome made sure to catch the bear before it hit her and made her wail just like the monkey.  
  
"Thank you, Inash!" Kagome cried, wrapping her arms around his neck in a grateful hug.  
  
"Get off me!"  
  
Kagome giggled. "But Kaka loves Inash!"  
  
"'Inash' don't love 'Kaka'!"  
  
Kagome's grip slackened, and when she had pulled back far enough to look at him, Inu-Yasha saw that she was crying. Not just little tears, either; the whole of the waterworks were going.  
  
"Inash," she blubbered pitifully.  
  
Inu-Yasha, who usually did not know what to say, put his hand on her head and tried to give her a comforting smile, but failing so miserably that his expression was more like someone was tickling his feet and pinching his bottom at the same time while he stood buck-naked in a grocery store.  
  
"I'm sorry, Kagome."  
  
Grasping the newly won bear tightly to her chest, Kagome did not respond.  
  
"I don't hate you. I'm sorry."  
  
Kagome turned up her tear-stained face to look him in the eye.  
  
"Kaka loves Inash."  
  
"That's mushy."  
  
"But I do!"  
  
It was rare for the young Kagome to speak in the first person, so this was Inu-Yasha's big hint. Not wanting her to cry anymore, and because Mrs. Higurashi and his own mom (both of whom had together brought the two children) were giving them funny looks as they so often did in such situations, Inu-Yasha decided it best to do what he knew he would have to do sooner or later.  
  
"I love you, too," he mumbled, glaring in defeat at the ground.  
  
"Yay!" Kagome squealed. "Now what should Kaka and Inash name their teddy child?"  
  
"What?!"  
  
~~~~~  
  
Present:  
  
"Damn it, Kagome!" Sango shouted angrily. "You fretted and worried that you would suck and that you wouldn't be any good. How stupid are you? Look at you!"  
  
Kagome bowed her head in shame.  
  
"You really aren't too bad, you know? For a beginner you're actually pretty good."  
  
"Really?" Kagome popped her head back up, smiling brightly.  
  
"Yeah. If I work with you after school for a couple weeks, you would be ready to practice with the dance team by September. If all goes well, which I'm sure it will, you'll be out on the football field with us during half time for the last few games." As Sango spoke, she seemed to be making plans and setting a schedule complete with dates already. "With you on the team, Kagome, we can do more stuff! We have an odd number of people right now, so we could never have everyone dance in pairs: someone would always be left out. This is so great!"  
  
Kagome's head was spinning just by listening to Sango's hopes and ideas. "W-won't I need a uniform outfit thing?" she stammered uncertainly.  
  
"Oh, don't worry about that. We had some other members that dropped out after we'd ordered theirs, so you'll have two or three different sizes to chose from."  
  
"Why'd they drop out?"  
  
Sango shrugged. "A couple claimed they had too much on their plates as it was, and another girl told Tamiya she didn't like me. Tamiya isn't very good at keeping things to herself, so that's how I found out. I don't know why she didn't like me, but I do know that I didn't do anything to her. Not that I know of anyway, you know? Anyway, I told the girl she had two options. One: get over it. Two: we could work something out. She ended up choosing option three: quit dance team."  
  
Kagome, who had been listening with interest, didn't know what to say to this, so she tried for a sympathetic yet irritated, "It sounds like it was just her problem."  
  
Sango shrugged again.  
  
"Do you want to practice the routine a few more times before we break for lunch?" Sango asked.  
  
"Sure."  
  
Halfway through the song, at a very inopportune moment when both girls were swinging their butts around in a wide semi-circle with their backs to the door, the very same door opened and Inu-Yasha and Miroku looked in and beheld this sight of behind.  
  
"Boo-tay!" Miroku exclaimed rapturously, extending both hands towards both bottoms as he sailed into the room.  
  
"What the hell are you doing here?!" yelled Sango, slamming a fist on Miroku's head, knocking him off his groping course.  
  
"We thought we might visit," Inu-Yasha said, giving Miroku's twitching form an irritated glance.  
  
"How'd you get in?" Kagome asked, momentarily dumbfounded as to how two teenage boys could find their way into her sacred room.  
  
"Uh... we went through the door."  
  
"Wha- you mean he met my mom?!" Kagome cried, pointing at Miroku, who was now making himself comfortable on her bed.  
  
"Hey!" he said indignantly. "She happened to think I was a perfect gentleman."  
  
"Until she caught you looking at her boobs," Inu-Yasha muttered.  
  
"I already explained that there was a glare: the sun was coming through the window right into my eyes, forcing me to look down," Miroku offered in self-defense.  
  
"You were checking out my mom?!" Kagome shrieked.  
  
"Now, now, Kagome," Miroku shushed, taking her hand in his and pulling her to sit in his lap. "There's no need to be jealous. Honestly, I wasn't, and if I were, it would only be to see what particular size and shape of woman it would take to give birth to a beauty such as yourself."  
  
Kagome blushed. "Oh, you don't really mean that." Miroku smiled, and she giggled.  
  
"Kagome!" Sango and Inu-Yasha shrieked in unison (yeah, he shrieked heh heh).  
  
"Oh!" Kagome said, aware of her self again. "Miroku, cut it out." She stood up, leaving Miroku to deal with a lonely lap. "Sango and I were working on a dance routine, so if you two wouldn't mind-"  
  
"We don't," Inu-Yasha said, plunking down upon the floor.  
  
"No, we need to practice, so could you two come tomorrow maybe?"  
  
"You said last night I could come over today," he said stubbornly.  
  
"Yeah, but Sango and I really need to work, and I don't want you guys watching. It makes us uncomfortable."  
  
"I'm fine if they stay," Sango said. "Practicing in front of others helps you not to be afraid of performing in front of the school, so it's all good as long as Miroku keeps his hands to himself."  
  
"Give me a nudey magazine, and I just might do that," Miroku said.  
  
"You are disgusting!" Sango cried, distinctly and undeniably repulsed.  
  
"A man's got his needs," Miroku said, looking through a stack of magazines on Kagome's desk.  
  
"What are looking for?! I don't have porn!" the owner of the desk and magazines shouted.  
  
"Sango doesn't mind if we stay," Inu-Yasha said as Miroku moped and Sango muttered, "Man, my ass."  
  
"I do, though," Kagome said. "I don't want you two laughing at me."  
  
"We won't, Kagome!" Miroku assured. "If either of us laughs, we both promise to leave the room immediately and never say a word about it -whatever it might be- again."  
  
Kagome thought about this as Miroku and Inu-Yasha nodded sweetly, although the latter looked more like he tasted mayonnaise than honey.  
  
"Okay, but you both have to keep your promise," Kagome finally told them.  
  
"Yeah, yeah. Hurry up with it then," Inu-Yasha said, rubbing his itching back against the edge of one of the boxes.  
  
Ignoring this rude order, Kagome turned to Sango. "Can you teach me a different song now. Maybe one that isn't as... you know."  
  
"Sure thing. I know just the song," Sango said.  
  
The one Sango had in mind happened to be a variety of songs Kagome instantly recognized, although she couldn't place each song's title or its artist. However, the lyrics went a little something like this:  
  
'One. Two. Three. Four.  
  
Get your body on the floor.  
  
Cuz you gotta get up to get down.  
  
Gotta, gotta get up to get down.  
  
One. Two. Three. Four.  
  
Gotta, gotta get up to get down.  
  
Get down, down, down, down.  
  
We're gonna party like it's nineteen ninety-nine.  
  
We're gonna party like it's nineteen ninety-nine.  
  
We're gonna party cuz  
  
We like to party  
  
We like, we like to party  
  
I love rock and roll  
  
Ro-ro-roll. Ro-ro-rock. Ro-ro-ro-ro.  
  
We like to party.'  
  
Then it switched to 'The Hamster Dance.'  
  
Kagome picked up the first half of the routine pretty quickly, but the move at the introduction of 'The Hamster Dance' was somehow, as she irritably put it, 'screwing her up.' Still unbelievably patient with her peer's problems, Sango was trying every bit of advice and strategy she could offer to help Kagome figure out how to do the difficult action. Lounging on the bed, Miroku had been intently watching both girls with the desperate hope he might see something, anything; it didn't matter what as long as it was part of the girls' bodies. Inu-Yasha was now very bored but was too stubborn to leave after he had insisted that he more or less had the right to stay.  
  
"What are you doing?" Sango asked her as Kagome made the motions of the move in slow motion.  
  
Kagome didn't mean to sound rude, but it came out that way due to her frustration. "What's it look like I'm doing?" she asked.  
  
"It looks like you're having a seizure," Inu-Yasha said.  
  
Kagome glared at her offender. "Oh, my God. That is the meanest thing you can say to someone when she's dancing."  
  
"No, I've heard worse actually," Sango said.  
  
"Someone actually made a rude comment on the way you dance?" Kagome asked in surprise.  
  
"No, she's talking about what she says to me when I dance," Miroku explained.  
  
"Only because you look like you're somehow staying in place while making a mad dash to the bathroom after you've been super constipated for a month," Sango snapped.  
  
"Ouch," Kagome said.  
  
Miroku shrugged. Apparently he was quite accustomed to Sango's behavior, but then again, she only acted in this manner towards him because she was accustomed to his behavior.  
  
As Kagome and Sango repeatedly worked through the first half of the song in an attempt to work through 'The Hamster Dance' transition, Inu- Yasha gave a sulky sigh.  
  
"This is freakin' stupid," he grumbled.  
  
"Nothing against shorts, but I wouldn't mind it so much if they were wearing skirts," Miroku admitted, rolling over so he was now lying on his back with his head hanging off one side and his legs off the other. "What's with all the unpacked boxes? How long has Kagome been here?"  
  
"I don't know."  
  
"You don't suppose she has any particular undergarments in any of these things, do you? Toys, maybe...."  
  
"Shut up," Inu-Yasha mumbled, scratching his foot.  
  
"Well, I'm going to look."  
  
"What? Leave her stuff alone," Inu-Yasha protested.  
  
But, alas, the snoopy Miroku was already hunched over a box, poking through its contents in the manner of a playful and hungry cat dabbing into an occupied fish bowl.  
  
"Fine. Get yourself slapped. It won't be my fault," Inu-Yasha huffed, turning his back on him and staring dully at the bare wall.  
  
Behind him Miroku gave a little gasp and chuckled in amusement.  
  
Forgetting that he had decided not to take part in the overstepping of Kagome's trust and personal boundaries, Inu-Yasha whirled around. "What? What is it?"  
  
Miroku looked over his shoulder with an impish grin.  
  
"It's a teddy bear!"  
  
Inu-Yasha fell backwards.  
  
"Put it back, and leave it alone," he said with an exasperated roll of his eyes.  
  
"But, Inu-Yasha," Miroku murmured humorously. "This teddy wuvs you beary much!" He shoved it against the side of Inu-Yasha's face in a snuggling motion, and then he did something else with the teddy in Inu- Yasha's face that will not be described in this fanfic for it was very offensive as well as X-rated.  
  
"You freaking jerk-off! Stop it!" Inu-Yasha shouted, pushing the bear and Miroku away from him with one vehement shove.  
  
"But he wuvs you!" protested the insufferably silly Miroku. He held the bear out to Inu-Yasha making smooching noises with pursed lips.  
  
"YAARRGGH!" Inu-Yasha snatched the bear from Miroku's prone-to- groping-girls hands and began smacking him with it.  
  
"Oh! Oh!" Miroku moaned, voicing the part of the teddy bear. "Oh, Inu- Yasha! Teddy likes the S&M just as much as you do! A lot! Mm! Oh, yeah!"  
  
"What the hell are you doing with Wee-wee?!" was Kagome's shrill cry of alarm when she noticed the beating of bear and Miroku.  
  
Inu-Yasha and Miroku halted in mid-fight and turned their heads to look disbelievingly at Kagome. "W-wee-wee?" they uttered together. Then they burst into gales of laughter.  
  
Seething with fury and humiliation, Kagome grabbed her teddy bear from Inu-Yasha's grip, which was loose due to the mirth shaking his entire body, and started shouting. "You promised you wouldn't laugh, you jerks! Get out of my room now!"  
  
"We promised not to laugh at how you dance, not your lame bear," Inu- Yasha somehow managed to retort as the still laughing Miroku grasped his shoulder for support (that rhymes! :3).  
  
"L-lame bear? You suck-a-nut, this is the 'lame' bear you gave me at a carnival!" Kagome cried. "If it's lame, it's only because you won it."  
  
"I didn't win crap for you," Inu-Yasha denied.  
  
Sango, who had been silently laughing, and Miroku, who had just recently finished audibly laughing, were now quiet as they watched the bickering friends with curiosity.  
  
"Yes, you did."  
  
"Why would I win anything for you?"  
  
"Because you had a crush on me."  
  
"WHAT?!"  
  
Sango and Miroku were now sitting side-by-side on some boxes, watching intently. This was good stuff.  
  
"I have never had a crush on you!"  
  
"Yeah, you did. I'm not stupid, you know. It was obvious. You were always being mean to me and calling me stupid."  
  
"Yeah, that sounds like love to me," Inu-Yasha said sarcastically.  
  
"Well, when you say it out loud like that, it doesn't, but women are keen about this sort of thing. Sango, didn't he like me?"  
  
"I, um, don't know," Sango answered truthfully. "I didn't know either of you then."  
  
"I never liked you like that, Kagome," Inu-Yasha said obstinately.  
  
"Oh," Kagome said with a look of surprise. "My mistake."  
  
"You're not disappointed?!" Inu-Yasha shouted.  
  
"Should I be?"  
  
"N-no," he stammered. "You just seemed like you wanted me to like you or something."  
  
"Heck no. That would be weird," Kagome said matter-of-factly. "Now. What were you two doing with my bear?" She glared accusingly at both boys.  
  
"I didn't do anything. Miroku was bother-"  
  
"Inu-Yasha was giving your sweet and innocent bear oral sex," Miroku supplied. Inu-Yasha would have kicked Miroku if the authoress of this story hadn't gotten to him first. The following scenes of violence have been omitted from this copy. Now, what happened after the beatings:  
  
"You guys, just leave my stuff alone, okay? No more weird sexual acts with my inanimate objects," Kagome said.  
  
"Yes, ma'am," Inu-Yasha and Miroku said as Sango held them both by the ears.  
  
"What time is it?" Inu-Yasha asked. "I'm hungry."  
  
"It's a little after two," Sango said, releasing both boys and glancing at her watch. "I'm hungry, too, now."  
  
"Let's go check out what's in the fridge then," Kagome suggested. She turned off the CD player and the lights before leaving the room; the others followed her out.  
  
They managed to scrounge up enough food to satisfy them all, and Kagome vowed that she would have to find a secret place to hide her family's favorite foods since the boys plowed through the remaining four Twinkies in the Twinkie box. After lunch they settled down in the family room to watch a movie. Little excitement took place during this period of time except for the instance when Sango felt a hand trailing down her back, giving cause for her to immediately turn around and smack Miroku, who claimed he had dropped a quarter and was trying to find it.  
  
At 5:04 P.M. Sango had to leave, so Miroku, Inu-Yasha, and Kagome walked her home since it was -according to Sango- a little over a mile from Kagome's residence. After they said their farewells to Sango, Miroku suggested they walk over to the strip mall a few blocks away.  
  
"What's there?" Kagome asked.  
  
"Candy shop. Pizza place. Music store. Video rental. Some small clothes stores," Miroku listed.  
  
"And a bike shop," Inu-Yasha said.  
  
"Is that where you got your motorcycle?" Kagome questioned.  
  
"No, my dad bought it for me while he was out of town visiting my cousin Sesshoumaru and my aunt."  
  
"Oh! Cool. How's he doing?"  
  
"Okay, I guess," Inu-Yasha said shortly.  
  
"You guess?"  
  
"Yeah. He doesn't talk to me very much. He got really moody a few years ago. My aunt tried to say it was, you know, puberty and hormones or whatever, but you don't see me being mean to my cousins."  
  
"Only to your friends and their Wee-wees," Kagome said nastily.  
  
While Miroku laughed his forehead off (he could lose some of it, since there seems to be so much of it as it is, although I suspect it might only look that way because his bangs are a bit on the short side), Inu- Yasha glowered at Kagome and tripped Miroku.  
  
"Dude! You made me eat gravel!" Miroku shouted after Inu-Yasha, who continued walking.  
  
"Yeah, and you made me eat bear crotch."  
  
"Ugh! Stop it! That's disgusting," Kagome shouted, whimpering at the thought of her teddy's lost innocence.  
  
"Hey, you're the one who brought up the 'Wee-wee' again," Inu-Yasha said. He and Miroku sniggered at the ambiguous statement.  
  
"Yeah! One up for the guy with old man's hair!" Kagome said, punching up into the air in mock triumph.  
  
"Old ma- what? Kagome, if I didn't know your mom, I swear-"  
  
"Help! Sexual harassment!" Kagome screamed.  
  
Inu-Yasha choked on whatever words were going to come out of his mouth next. "What are you doing?! Shut up!"  
  
"Eeeek!" Kagome ran over to Miroku, grabbed his hand, and together they ran in the direction of the strip mall, which was now just up the street.  
  
"If anyone is sexual harassmenting anyone, it's him!" Inu-Yasha shouted stupidly, dashing after them. How did that girl always manage herself onto that delicate nerve of his, just so she could twang it like a guitar string until it snapped? Worst of all she seemed to enjoy infuriating him. It was very annoying, but if were perceptive enough, he would realize that deep down he knew he was having fun anyway.  
  
"I'm going to grab some candy," Miroku said, sticking his thumb over his shoulder in an inaccurate gesture of where the shop was.  
  
"Okay. We'll be in the music store," Kagome said.  
  
"I didn't say I wanted to go to the music store," Inu-Yasha said irritably.  
  
"Yeah, but I could feel you wanted to," she said, clasping her hands together and fluttering her eyelashes comically.  
  
"Just walk, you spaz."  
  
Kagome wasn't sure whether he was referring to her dancing skills or lack thereof, so she let that one slide as they entered the music store. While Inu-Yasha wandered off to look at his preferred genre of music, Kagome mingled around the Techno and Pop areas in search of songs the dance team could use. Truthfully, she had never been very interested in music before; she would listen to the radio when she did house work and such, but she was trying to save enough money for college. However, this noble goal was often put to the side when it came to clothes she wanted to buy, the result being that her college money was pitifully small when compared to what she could have if she hadn't bought all those skirts, shorts, etc. She sighed as she remembered all this. Still, it never hurt to look....  
  
As she replaced a CD she had been looking at, someone across from her in the other aisle caught her eye. It was her school's football team's captain. His hair was in a ponytail just as it had been the previous evening, and he was wearing a school t-shirt with the wolf mascot baring its fangs.  
  
They made eye contact.  
  
Kagome looked away sheepishly, but he was still looking at her.  
  
"Ugh," Kagome fretted silently. "He probably thinks I was checking him out, and now he's probably thinking I'm not as pretty as the cheerleaders that adore him so much. I feel retarded."  
  
"Hey," the boy said in an attempt to catch her attention.  
  
Nervous and becoming annoyed, Kagome looked up to find an expression of recognition instead of the condescension she had expected. The boy was still staring at her, obviously trying to process her face.  
  
"Don't you go to my school?"  
  
Surprised to hear these words from him, Kagome gave a small, shaky nod before replying, "Yeah. You're Ryouga, right?"  
  
He shook his head, causing his ponytail to sway.  
  
"No, my name's Kouga."  
  
"Oh, sorry. I got some false info then," Kagome said.  
  
"Huh? What do you mean?" He gave her a quizzical look that would have told Kagome he misunderstood her even if he hadn't voiced his confusion.  
  
"I asked a friend what your name was, and, um, she told me your name was Ryouga." It didn't occur to her until she had finished her sentence that it sounded like she was obsessed with him, a guy she had never talked to before.  
  
"Oh. Okay," he said. He now looked more interested in her than he had a moment ago. "What's your name?"  
  
"I'm Kagome," she said. "I'm new at school."  
  
"I thought you looked different from the other girls I know," Kouga admitted.  
  
Kagome didn't know how to respond to this, so she merely nodded, ducking her eyes back to the CD in her hand. "What the heck?" Kagome thought to herself. "Does he mean that or is he trying to sweet-talk me because he thinks I like him?"  
  
"I like you," Kouga said abruptly.  
  
"P-pardon?"  
  
"I like you. You don't fling yourself at me, you're shy, and you don't try to stand out. I like you," Kouga explained simply.  
  
"Oh," Kagome laughed in comprehension. "I thought you meant you like me like me, as in you're interested in dating me."  
  
"Yeah, that's a better way to put it," he reasoned.  
  
"Kagome, I'm ready to go," Inu-Yasha said as he walked over to her. He saw Kouga, noticed she was blushing a considerable amount even for her, and then frowned. "Hey," he greeted curtly.  
  
"Yo," Kouga offered in return, eyeing Inu-Yasha with curious contempt, as he seemed to be struck with a notion.  
  
"Miroku's waving at us from the window. Let's go," Inu-Yasha said, taking Kagome's arm.  
  
"Uh, all right," Kagome said, following him.  
  
"Later, Kagome!" Kouga called after her with a grin.  
  
"Bye, Kouga." Kagome looked back over her shoulder and waved, trying to smile naturally but was having trouble because she was still in mega- blush mode.  
  
"What are you doing talking to him?" Inu-Yasha grumped as they exited the music store.  
  
"We recognized each other. I...." she mumbled. "I think he asked me out."  
  
"He what?" Inu-Yasha shouted, ignoring Miroku, who was offering him a stick of gum.  
  
Kagome looked up into his face and then down to the hand on her arm. Inu-Yasha removed it and clenched it at his side.  
  
"I don't know why he'd want to go out with you when he can have any of the cheerleaders or dance team chics," he grumbled.  
  
"But I'm a dance team 'chic' already... sort of," Kagome said thoughtfully without noting the rude part of the remark.  
  
Inu-Yasha snatched the gum out of Miroku's hand with a grunt of thanks before he muttered huffily, "Yeah, whatever."  
  
Author's Note:  
  
07/30/03  
  
I did it again. Sorry, my faithful readers. The last time I updated this fanfic was around Easter, and it feels like it's been only one month instead of three. Really, though, I'm sorry I don't update this more, but I've had so much going on. I will explain in a nutshell was has been keeping me from my writing work.  
  
My lazy self.  
  
The last trimester of school was difficult, and I had National Honors Society stuff to work on. Ten hours of service hours done in a month. Yay! (-.-) I nearly cried when I found all that out.  
  
Visited family in Texas, and the week before that I was visiting family in Louiville, and before that family friends came to visit.  
  
My birthday, bubbas! Hell yes! The big sixteen. :3  
  
Driving test for permit. I took it last Tuesday, and a week later (yesterday) me mama and dada bought a car. It's a town car for the entire family because both my 'rents have big vans that eat gas like my brother eating ribs, only the van is a faster consumer. Anyway, the car isn't my car, but I figure that as long as I don't wreck it, it's as good as mine. Heh heh  
  
Summer reading. The Scarlet Letter. Boy, that was a fun read. *rolls eyes* I got it done early because school starts on the fourth of August for me. Excuse me while I go sob.  
  
My anime order came, and I had to finish a couple series.  
  
I was working. Not a job job, mind you, but like plant and baby-sitting and stuff.  
  
Orientation for school. Excuse me while I go sob again.  
  
Anyway, those are pretty much all the reasons I have for not updating sooner. I'm truly sorry, but life has to come before the fanfics. Never thought I would admit that. Just don't spread it around. lol  
  
By they way I am no longer a driving virgin since 07/28/03. I took my dad's behemoth of a Ford Explorer out for a little spin around the neighborhood. In all seriousness I nearly hit an old lately. I swear I couldn't see her.  
  
Now, to talk about the new chapter!  
  
I thought I wasn't going to fool anybody, but maybe you guys suspected and didn't say anything. It doesn't matter, so I'll give y'all the benefit of the doubt. Go back and read chapter seven if you wanna check out how obvious (in my opinion) 'Ryouga's' true identity was. He's captain of the football team (he's the leader of the pack), the mascot is a wolf, he's supa fast, and Kouga gets really pissed when the other team hurts one of his teammates (like in the anime whenever his friends are wounded or killed). Besides, Ryouga doesn't have long dark hair. ^.^ I hope I caught some of you by surprise with that. I was really excited. I thought it was an awesome idea, but I'm too modest to say so. Haha Actually, I'm not, as I'm sure you inferred.  
  
I realize that this is going much too slow, so I promise to speed things up. I feel like I'm still at the beginning of this fanfic, which is good and bad. Good because it'll be long, but bad because it'll be long. I don't when the hell this thing will be over! Haha I hope I'm not scaring any of you away because if I'm going to do this, I'm gonna do it freaking well if not right. lol  
  
Also, I would really appreciate reviews from everyone. ^.^ Nothing makes me happier about writing a fanfic than plenty of nice reviews. Reviewers of Inu-Yasha fanfics are the nicest people, and I'm not saying that to get a nice review if any at all. I really think it's true. Of all the fanfics I read and write, the nicest and most supportive reviewers are Inu-Yasha people. I got some real haters on my Lord of the Rings fanfic, boy howdy, so I know what a bad review is like. Lol  
  
Please, if you do review, I would like it if you would kindly let me know what you thought of the jokes I made in this chapter. I personally think this chapter is excessive in perverted jokes (relative to the other chapters of this fanfic). If it was fine, and you weren't offended, please say so. If you thought the Inu-Yasha molesting the teddy bear was vile, please say so. If you didn't like the bear, screw you because my teddy looks like that, and his name really is Wee-wee. lol I received and named him when I was five, so I that's my only defense for that. I bought a pet rat when I was eight, and I named her B.J. Obviously and undoubtedly, I've always been pretty perverse. Heh heh  
  
To cap off this really long author's note (I'm sure some of you hate that I make mine so long. Sorry.), I have a funny story to tell. It happened just today, actually.  
  
I was walking my dog, and as he was taking a dump (can't be blunter than that, eh?), I tried not to watch him because what would the neighbors think, right? The parents of the child I baby-sit live on that street! Anyway, to distract my eyes and mind, I was reading the license plate on a granny car. It read:  
  
'If you like freedom, thank a vet.'  
  
I thought about that for a minute before I asked myself, "What does an animal doctor have to do with freedom?" Then my brain train chugga-chugged over to the comprehension station where I realized, "Ooohh. Vet for veteran, not veterinarian." Duh, me.  
  
Then my dog pinched off the last bit and was ready to finish our stroll.  
  
That's the end of that.  
  
Again, please review. No one appreciates a review more than the author... unless it's really mean anyway. haha 


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